The House Committee on Housing and Urban Development has recently approved a substitute bill authorizing onsite relocation of thousands of informal settlers all over the country.
In a hearing last Wednesday, Cavite Rep. Strike Revilla, the panel chairman, said members of the committee approved the measure, which is a consolidation of several proposed laws, including Bill 4869 authored by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.
The bill will be transmitted to the plenary for another round of deliberations.
Moreover, Rodriguez, citing a study by the University of Asia and the Pacific, said the country is projected to have a “housing need of 12.3 million by 2030.”
He said the same study found out that private developers are building homes mostly for the rich and the middle class, while the government was taking care of the housing needs of the poor.
“The housing and resettlement policy is primarily offsite relocation. The government builds houses for informal settler families in areas outside Metro Manila or in rural areas in Cagayan de Oro, where there is lack of employment, sustainable livelihood and social services,” he added.
Rodriguez said that many of those who had agreed to be relocated often return to Metro Manila, Cagayan de Oro and other urban centers for jobs, hospitalization and other services.
Under the consolidated bill approved by the housing committee, informal settler families and local government units (LGUs) would be extensively involved in the formulation of a resettlement plan for homeless citizens.
The bill said there would be sufficient consultations and hearings, where the affected families and civil-society organizations, would be asked to participate.
The measure added the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, in tandem with LGUs, would be in charge of providing basic services and livelihood for relocated families.
The Mindanao lawmaker said the Constitution mandates the state to “undertake, in cooperation with the private sector, a continuing program of urban land reform and housing which will make available at affordable cost decent housing and basic services to underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban centers and resettlement areas.”
“Thus, the need for onsite, in-city or near-city resettlement, which upholds the urban poor’s right to the city in order to comply with our Constitution’s mandate to give Filipinos affordable and decent housing,” he stressed.
Aside from Rodriguez and Revilla, the other authors of the consolidated bill are Representatives Jose Francisco Benitez of Negros Occidental, Jose Christopher Belmonte and Alfred Vargas of Quezon City, Ron Salo of Kabayan, Juan Fidel Nograles of Rizal, Jonh Marvin Nieto of Manila, Francis Gerald Abaya of Cavite, and Naealla Aguinaldo of Bahay.