The Chamber of Real Estate Association and Builders Inc. (Creba) said that calls from different groups to remove the head of key shelter agencies (KSAs) following the resignation of Vice President Jejomar C. Binay as chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) may lead to further delays in responding to the country’s staggering housing backlog.
“From the industry standpoint, for all practical reasons, we find this call to be unnecessary…. To remove the KSAs will distort all the programs. The road map we’re crafting with the KSAs and housing committee leaders of Congress will be exposed to unnecessary danger of delaying the anticipated results,” National President of Creba Noel “Toti” M. Cariño said in an interview on Wednesday.
The housing road map, a joint undertaking by the private sector, the housing government agencies and the legislature, is considered the “master plan” to address the estimated 5.5 million housing backlog in the country.
The plan will spell out the housing industry’s objectives in terms of improving production, financing, regulation and land use. The central point of the road map, said Cariño, is the eventual creation of a Department of Housing to streamline the functions of the six shelter agencies.
Cariño said that they are opposing the proposal to ask for the courtesy resignation of the heads of the six agencies, namely, the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund, Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, National Housing Authority, National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., Social Housing Finance Corporation and the Home Guaranty Corp., because these have no real basis.
“The process should be meritocracy and based on the performance of the officials. Let’s take a look at the background of these people, these are professionals. If they have done nothing wrong, they should be insulated from the politics,” Cariño added.
Moreover, legislators should leave the fate of the heads of the KSAs to whoever will take the reins of HUDCC, he said.
Following the resignation of Binay from the Aquino Cabinet last week, Rep. Edgar Erice of Caloocan, Sen. Francis Escudero and the Palace expressed support for the courtesy resignation of the heads of the KSAs, considered by the Aquino administration as Binay allies.
Creba is pushing for a series of reforms to address the country’s housing needs and will be tackling these anew with legislators in a national housing summit to begin in the latter part of the year.
1 comment
If you spare the Binay appointees from being asked to resign as a courtesy, be very sure to have a tight watch over their transactions.Although they are professionals as Creba head Toti Carino claims, their loyalty is askance. Isn’t it that Binay bagman Gerry Limlingan was also touted a fine professional?