None other than the 1987 Constitution mandates that the State shall make available at affordable cost decent housing and basic services to underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban center and resettlement areas. Despite this, the housing needs of Filipinos could not be met by the government, and the backlog could even balloon to 6.8 million units by the time President Duterte steps down from office in 2022.
House Committee on Housing and Urban Development Chairman and PDP-Laban Rep. Alfredo B. Benitez of Negros Occidental, citing the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), said the housing backlog reached 2 million units last year. For this year, the figure could expand by 760,400 units. In 2018 Benitez said the country’s additional housing needs would hit 774,441 units; 788,773 in 2019; 803,405 in 2020; 818,363 in 2021; and 833,619 in 2022.
“However, we need to properly validate this data, because, I think, our housing needs are more than that [6.8 million]. We need to work together to address this immediately,” he said.
To erase this backlog, Benitez said the government, with the help of the private sector, should construct at least 1 million housing units a year. He added this could be achieved with the passage of several housing-related measures. These include the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (DHUD); transferring government offices to the provinces; establishing an on-site, in-city or near-city resettlement program for informal-settler families; and a resolution standardizing the definitions of housing terminologies. Currently, the five bills, which seek to create the DHUD, are pending with a technical working group.
Liberal Party Rep. Jose Christopher Belmonte of Quezon City, one of the authors of the bills creating the housing agency, said his proposal seeks to consolidate, rationalize and coordinate the functions and powers of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC), Home Guaranty Corp. (HGC), Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), National Housing Authority (NHA) and Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). Belmonte said the bill will be a step toward providing decent and affordable housing to every Filipino family the soonest possible time.
Another author of the measure, Lakas Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga said the creation of the housing department will establish an efficient, effective, comprehensive and integrated national and local housing, planning and urban development programs aimed at adequately addressing the basic housing needs and requirement of the Filipino family.
“The ultimate goal is to provide decent and affordable houses to every Filipino family,” Arroyo said.
“Corollary to this is the provision of livelihood opportunities, mass transportation, public safety, education, health care and a clean environment, thereby bringing about family dignity and stability, peace and order, population control and decongestion of urban centers and the generation of employment and taxes,” she added.
PDP-Laban Rep. Ruffy Biazon of Muntinlupa noted that, despite the enactment of Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, the problems of urban blight and homelessness continue to confront the Philippines. Biazon said the creation of a housing department would help expedite the implementation of various policies and programs for the sector.
“While we face a huge housing backlog, it is ironic that there are government housing units that remain unoccupied to this day. While many of our poor countrymen continue to suffer homelessness, we have thousands of housing units lying idle,” Biazon said. “These idle government assets were acquired with the people’s money and represent wastage of scarce government resources,” he added.
Rep. Michael Romero of 1-Pacman said there is a need to reorganize the housing or shelter agencies by consolidating the functions of NHMFC, HGC, HDMF, NHA and HLURB.
“The creation of the department of housing will address the absence of an adequate and coherent institutional setup that formulates and implements a comprehensive, integrated, inclusive and sustainable management of the housing and urban development sector,” Romero said.
Rep. Cristal Bagatsing of PDP-Laban said the creation of a housing agency has been pitched before in previous Congresses but the measure was not passed. Bagatsing said it is high time for the 17th Congress to consider enacting the measure. Citing the Constitution, Bagatsing said the State is supposed to ensure that urban areas have affordable housing, sustainable physical and social infrastructure and services.
Apart from the creation of a housing department, Benitez also pushed for the enactment of the proposed Administrative Capital City Planning Act to solve the country’s housing problems. Under his proposal, the Administrative Capital City Planning Commission will be created to lead the development of a comprehensive plan to relocate the government agencies and establish an administrative capital city outside Metro Manila.
“There is a need to rethink and develop a masterplan that will decongest Metro Manila. Relocation of capitals have already been done by several countries,” the lawmaker said.
Under the bill, the commission shall conduct a feasibility study of relocating the most of the government agencies outside Metro Manila. The commission will be placed under the Office of the President.
Benitez has also refiled a joint resolution standardizing the definitions of housing terminologies, saying the lack of standard definitions of terminologies slowed down the housing programs of the government and the private sector. He said it provides a standard definition to 379 housing terms.
The lawmaker added that the standard definitions were agreed upon by at least 15 agencies and organizations involved in the National Housing Summit conducted last year.
The housing committee has already endorsed for plenary approval at the lower chamber the measure establishing a local government resettlement program that will implement an on-site, in-city or near-city strategy for informal settler families (ISFs).
“Government programs before were focused on the relocation of informal settlers to areas outside Metro Manila where they have no access to livelihood and other basic services. The scenario is that the ISFs are pushed to go back to informal settlements in the urban centers again because of their need to find a source of income for their family’s daily needs,” Benitez added.
Under the bill, to the extent feasible, socialized housing and resettlement projects shall be local near areas where employment opportunities are accessible. Also, government agencies dealing with the provision of skills and livelihood training, development of livelihoods programs and grant of livelihood loans should prioritize the beneficiaries of the program.
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez