The Duterte administration supports proposals to create a housing department to fast-track the implementation of programs aimed at wiping out the housing backlog, according to the country’s economic planners.
In a budget hearing at the Senate on Wednesday, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the Cabinet has already decided to create the Department of Housing and Urban Development (DHUD).
Under the current setup, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC)—which oversees the implementation of the government’s housing programs—does not have a budget. Six housing agencies under the HUDCC are given a budget, but the council does not have a say on how it is spent.
“In the recent Cabinet meeting, there was a decision to create the Department of Housing and, in fact, I’m working very closely with the Vice President to find out how best to do this,” Diokno said. “I’m quite sure that this administration is supportive of the move.”
He also said the Cabinet has already tabled for discussion the creation of the DHUD in the next Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) meeting in September.
Various measures have been filed at the House of Representatives and at the Senate-calling for the setup of the DHUD. However, these bills were not enacted.
Sens. Franklin M. Drilon, Loren B. Legarda and Risa Hontiveros supported the plan of the Cabinet to create the DHUD and its inclusion on the Ledac agenda.
Legarda said the bill creating the DHUD has been languishing in the House and the Senate. She said these measures were filed as early as 2007.
In December 2015 the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill (HB) 6194, or the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act.
In the Senate, Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. filed Senate Bill (SB) 423 in July 2013, while Sen. Jinggoy P. Ejercito-Estrada filed SB 2199 in May 2014.
In March 2015 Sen. Joseph Victor G. Ejercito filed SB 2691, or the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development Act.
“This [creation of the DHUD] is one of the legislative measures that we will push in the 17th Congress,” Diokno said.
Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo, who chairs the HUDCC, pushed for the establishment of the DHUD to make it easier for the government to administer its housing programs.
The council is currently crafting a road map that will detail the government’s strategies to wipe out the housing backlog. While this is being done, Robredo called for a temporary moratorium on constructing socialized-housing units, after she found that relocation homes built by the previous administration were “poorly built”.
Apart from its poor design, Robredo noted that the relocation homes did not have utilities, such as water and electricity. While each house costs only P140,000, many units had cracks and the doors were already damaged.
“This is why I am in favor of declaring a moratorium in the next few months, stop building houses first. We want to build quality housing units,” she said.
During her recent visit to a government housing project in Barangay Batia in Bocaue, Bulacan, Robredo found that only 800 out of the 4,000 housing units built there were occupied.
The housing project of the National Housing Authority in Bocaue initially sought to address the housing needs of low-salaried military personnel. Government data showed six out of 10 policemen could not purchase their own home.
“When I assumed office, there was no comprehensive road map that charts the direction of the government’s housing program. The shelter agencies just built homes,” Robredo said.
“There is really a need to sit down and strategize. Actually, the President asked me if I’m content with the housing budget. Of course, I am not content, but I don’t want to ask for additional funds without a plan,” she added.
Robredo said the country’s housing problem was most evident in Bulacan, where informal settlers from Metro Manila were usually relocated.
This, she said, has also compounded the woes of the local government of Bulacan as they were forced to provide for the needs of additional residents with their limited funds. The HUDCC chairman said she is open to adopting housing models in Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as other models in local governments that have been proven to work.
Robredo said the HUDCC will be meeting to discuss the problems and plans for the housing sector this week.
1 comment
I feel there is no need to create DHUD. Thorough review of gov’t agencies with focus on housing and urban development is a must.Abolish/eliminate those agencies having redundant or overlapping functions.Then allocate proper gov’t funding to hasten housing demand