Kareem Duazo’s firstborn son took one look at the Aspen unit at Pacific Terraces Community (PTC) South in Imus, Cavite, and told his father, “I want to stay here.”

 

There were two bedrooms and two toilets; and the kid was delighted upon seeing the second-floor balcony.

 

Duazo, then a seafarer, also felt the 90-square meter, two-story unit was perfect for his growing family. It was 2012 and they had just moved in, after his wife gave birth to their second son.

 

Duazo used his paternity leave to take care of his wife and new baby.

 

“Honestly, I did not want to go back to work yet,” he tells Inquirer Lifestyle in Filipino. “Every morning I’d hear the crowing of roosters instead of honking cars. I was able to get away from the noise, pollution, crowds and traffic.”

 

Duazo and his brood were among the early settlers at PTC South. His property stands on a corner lot and is near the clubhouse, the guardhouse and the basketball court.

 

PTC South is one of two latest additions to the PTC communities developed by ACM Homes for seafarers looking for good homes to invest their savings in.

 

Weekend barbecues

 

Located in Carsadang Bago in Imus, the subdivision is tucked away in a quiet and bucolic part of the province, and yet is only several kilometers away from Coastal Road that links Cavite to the metropolis.

 

Duazo, currently crewing manager for a transoceanic firm, said he and the first few families that moved to PTC South formed an immediate bond.

 

“We had barbecues every weekend,” he recalls. “We had wine and a grill, just like what they do in the States.”

 

The impromptu group also organized Halloween trick or treat sorties, Christmas parties, Easter egg hunts, sports fests and football and baseball clinics. There were also monthly community meetings.

 

Although the picnics have stopped, Duazo said everyone is still involved in monitoring the construction of the clubhouse and a reading room where they plan to hold storytelling sessions for children.

 

Duazo recalls that he and the other dads who regularly attended the community meetings agreed that preserving their neighborhood’s family-based lifestyle is of prime importance.

 

Legacy

 

“Sooner or later the kids will grow up but this neighborhood, this community, will be our legacy to them,” Duazo stresses.

 

Near PTC South is an earlier development of ACM Homes that residents fondly call PTC One.

 

“It’s really just PTC but we are the real pioneers,” says Violeta Gacita who lives in a two-story house with husband Orlando. Their son Oliver bought the house in 2009 when he was still a bachelor.

 

Gacita said her husband originally wanted the property to serve as halfway house between overseas assignments as a seafarer.

 

Their son is now married and stays in Fairview, Quezon City. He turned the house over to his parents so they don’t have to put up with the noise and pollution in the vulcanizing shop that doubled as their home in nearby Bacoor.

 

Gacita leads Inquirer Lifestyle to a greenhouse a stone’s throw away from her home. “This is where I plant vegetables,” she says. “It’s therapeutic. It’s just me, the quiet and the fresh air.”

 

PTC One has other smart amenities such as reading rooms, a bamboo park for children, and a basketball court where the bleachers’ section is made of grass.

 

Giving back

 

In 1992, Antonette de Guzman, Carol Osteria and Mia Gentugaya founded ACM Homes, a niche property developer providing affordable homes to low- and middle-market families. It was their way of giving back after learning of the Philippines’ recovery after the 1986 Edsa revolution.

 

De Guzman was then regional director for credit at The Elders Finance Group and Osteria was an investment banker at Chemical Bank in Hong Kong.

 

The two teamed up with Gentugaya, then a senior partner in a top law firm, believing that Filipinos, no matter their income level, could lead better lives, given a secure, comfortable environment. They chose Cavite as the site.

 

Gentugaya later stepped back to become a consultant while De Guzman and Osteria went on to do nine low- to medium-cost development projects in Imus, three in General Trias, and one in Tanza.

 

These include ACM Homes 1, ACM Sherwood Homes, ACM Woodstock Homes (Phases 1 to 9), ACM Woodcrest Homes, Goodwood Homes, Pacific Woods, Pacific Woods West, Pacific Renaissance Villas and PTC.

 

ACM Homes also completed Woodstock Homes in Nasugbu, Batangas.

 

To date, more than 10,872 housing units in 20 projects spread over 123.84 hectares in Cavite and Batangas have been turned over. Each community is located near town centers, various modes of transport, institutions and commercial districts.

 

House and lot packages range from P300,000 to P5.9 million with payment options that match buyers’ income levels.

 

Of these developments, PTC in Carsadang Bago has formed a strategic marketing alliance with the Philippine Transmarine Carriers Inc., one of the country’s largest crew management companies.

 

Gacita said ACM regularly brings speakers to their community to give seminars to wives and mothers of seafarers. The seminars discuss financial literacy and possible businesses to augment the remittances sent them.

 

As a result of these seminars, Duazo says the women in their community have become smarter in handling money: “They invest in things for the house, cultivate the garden, engage in landscaping but there is no competition.”

 

Duazo adds that his wife once heard a remark that PTC is “sosyal at pangmayaman but that’s not the case. We worked hard for all the things we enjoy here. There were a lot of sacrifices, hardships, loneliness at sea to make all this worth it. And peace of mind is priceless.”