The Senate is set to work on a measure seeking to create a new executive agency consolidating the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board under one roof, to be known as the Department of Housing and Urban Development (DHUD).
Allaying concerns the proposal would only result in a bloated bureaucracy, Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara, the bill’s principal author, said the DHUD envisioned in Senate Bill (SB) 952 will not create another government layer in the civil service.
Angara cited the recent unauthorized occupation by an urban- poor group of state-built housing units for soldiers and policemen in Pandi, Bulacan, as yet another compelling reason for the creation of a housing “super body”.
The senator said the main objective of creating the DHUD, which shall take on the task to operationalize the constitutional mandate of implementing a continuing urban land reform and housing program in cooperation with the private sector, is to deliver an affordable, decent housing for Filipinos.
In pressing Congress to frontload passage of SB 952 establishing a new housing department, Angara recalled that when he filed the bill last year, the housing backlog “stood at 3.9 million, and the country’s housing need was approximated to hit more than 6 million by 2030”.
Angara said, “It is proper that an integrated approach is executed by all key shelter agencies of the government [led by the DHUD] to effectively create and to seamlessly implement a national housing program, considering the total need for new houses is 6.2 million by 2030, with 345,941 housing units needed to be constructed every year.”
Saying the DHUD is envisioned to be the primary body of the national government responsible for the management of housing and urban development, the senator said it shall be “the sole and main planning and policy-making, regulatory, program coordination, and performance monitoring entity for all housing and urban development concerns, primarily focusing on the access to and affordability of basic human needs,” quoting a portion of Section 4 of the bill.
But Angara also hastened to clarify that the new housing body “will not be a ‘do-it-all’ agency”, as it will be formulating policies for national housing and urban development consistent with the Philippine Development Plan, “in coordination and consultation with local government units and other stakeholders”.