R-II Builders’ Founder and Chairman, Dr. Reghis M. Romero II, was a key driving force—throughout the administrations of President Corazon C. Aquino and President Fidel V. Ramos—in the radical transformation of Smokey Mountain.

R-II Builders’ Founder and Chairman, Dr. Reghis M. Romero II, was a key driving force—throughout the administrations of President Corazon C. Aquino and President Fidel V. Ramos—in the radical transformation of Smokey Mountain.

With the lives and long-term wellbeing of 25,000 informal residents at stake (along with the projected benefits to the environment, the business sector, and the public), R-II Builders partnered with the National Housing Authority.

To sufficiently prepare the entire site—on the landside and the marine side—for the envisioned decent and permanent housing for the residents, and for the Master-Planned Port City, R-II Builders employed game-changing construction technologies and approaches in environmental management and remediation, reclamation, and dredging.

These approaches tackled unprecedented engineering challenges, not least of which were the monumental work of removing the 20-storey-high “mountain” of garbage, and the critical step of addressing the unstable ground. After all, the muddy, methane-emitting, and heavily-leachate-contaminated soil was the site of the planned medium-rise residential condominium complex.

In retrospectively discussing his administration, the 12th President of the Republic of the Philippines, the late Fidel V. Ramos, referred to The Smokey Mountain Development and Reclamation Project (SMDRP) as a noble undertaking, and considered it one of his administration’s major accomplishments.

“We closed the…Smokey Mountain open dumpsite and disposed about 5 million cubic meters of garbage to develop it into a port-related, commercial and industrial area with housing units for its resident(s)… We drew up a development plan for the area, a component of which is the development of a 79-hectare reclaimed [area] for the purpose…”

In place of the symbol of abject poverty, there now stand 21 units of medium-rise buildings: part of the thriving heart of what is now a community that the residents themselves have rechristened “Paradise Heights.”

It is now part of the larger modern complex. which includes the industrial park and private commercial port. The latter—Manila Harbor Center—holds the distinction of handling the largest and most efficient international bulk and breakbulk operations in the Port of Manila.

A prized section of the residential community is a prime 2,000 square meter lot that formed part of R-II Builders’ five-hectare share in the project. In 2017, the company, on its own initiative, donated the entire property to the Parish of the Risen Christ (formed in 1989, and initially a small chapel that could accommodate a maximum of 60 worshippers).

The company also donated an unsolicited P20 million worth of concreting and architectural works to help a group of donors transform the previously 100-square-meter floor area of the old church into a 3,500 square meter church, capable of seating over 530 congregants.

This is one part of a larger donation, and other still-ongoing social programs that Dr. Reghis M. Romero II, chairman of the board of R-II Builders Inc., has personally committed to support.