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Vice
President and Housing and Urban Coordinating Council (HUDCC)
chairman Noli “Kabayan” De Castro said that the economic
crisis in the United States will not slow down the
housing sector in the Philippines.
Speaking
during the national convention of the Subdivision and
Housing Developers Association (SHDA) in Cebu on
September 26, de Castro said the lessons learned by
local housing from its past mistakes have made the
sector stronger today.
“The
housing sector has gone through a similar crisis in the
past. In fact, we are a decade ahead of the Americans in
creating a housing mess,” de Castro said.
De
Castro was referring to the time when the Unified Home
Lending Program collapsed and the Asset Participation
Certificates or APC-funded projects crumbled.
Looking
back, the housing czar said the situation could have
been averted if the proper regulatory environment was in
place or if the major financial institutions managed
risk-taking in a prudent manner.
“In
other words, if good-governance principles were truly
practiced, maybe the financial crisis could have been
averted,” he said.
But as
far as the financial crisis in the US is concerned, de
Castro is confident that housing in the country will not
fold up.
“We’ve
been there before and back. We know better,” he said.
As
precautionary measures, however, de Castro said he has
already asked the National Housing Mortgage and Finance
Corp. (NHMFC) and the Home Guarantee Corp. (HGC) to
study the market environment very closely.
Such
effort to monitor the market, he said, is related to
their plans to issue the first mortgage-backed
securities since the recent events may have an impact on
the undertaking.
He said
the NHMFC and the HGC also need to review the housing
policies to find out if there are loopholes tha can lead
to financial problems in the future and to identify
measures that could be put in place.
Nevertheless, de Castro said everything is in place to
keep the housing sector moving forward. In fact, he said
reforms are being stepped up especially in areas where
red tape is involved, such as in the processing of
housing permit.
Currently, red tape is being addressed by the One-Stop
Shop and the Office of Primary Responsibility systems of
the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.
He also
added that there is the continuous disposition of the
remaining nonperforming assets to beef up housing fund.
In relation to this, de Castro has invited the
developers to support the mega housing fair of HUDCC
from October 29 to 31 at SM Megamall.
The Vice
President also vowed to sustain reforms for a more
effective implementation of the national program for
informal settlers such as the beneficiary-led
resettlement policy of the National Housing Authority
and the targeted subsidy initiatives under the Community
Mortgage Program, which will be initiated by the Social
Housing and Finance Corp.
“Under
these policies and programs for the informal settlers,
clients with greater need would be targeted and
prioritized, thus paving the way for a more efficient
use of the government’s limited funds for housing,” he
said.
On the
part of developers, de Castro is urging SHDA to keep on
serving the country and Filipinos.
“Only
your sense of duty and patriotism could inspire and
guide you in your partnership with government in our
shared goal of building affordable and quality homes
between now and the year 2010,” de Castro stressed.
“What
you build for our countrymen are not just
investments—you are building for them the home of their
dreams,” he said. |
