By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz & Catherine N. Pillas
First of four parts
Ask schoolchildren what are the basic needs, and you’ll readily get this answer—food, clothing and shelter.
For Filipinos belonging to some 5.5 million households, however, that third component is probably missing. Shelter, or the lack thereof, remains as one of the top national concerns to this day, and is steadily worsening if you keep a head count of the growing number of Filipinos who do not own a house every year.
But how do you totally solve a problem, the magnitude of which you are not even aware of?
This is the daunting task staring the government and the private sector in the face, as they attempt to provide solutions to the country’s housing-backlog riddle.
No official definition
The chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development, Rep. Alfredo B. Benitez of the Third District of Negros Occidental, said the country’s housing backlog is estimated at 5.5 million units—a figure that would vary, depending on who or which agency you are talking to.
Benitez admitted that there is no official estimate yet on the country’s housing backlog.
The reason is elementary: “Currently, we don’t have an official definition of housing backlog,” Benitez admitted.
Agreeing on the official definition of “housing backlog” is one of the main objectives of the Housing Summit that was launched by Congress and
other stakeholders on May 27.
Benitez said once an official definition has been crafted, he is certain that the backlog would go well beyond his 5.5-million-unit estimate, making him concede that “the dream of every Filipino to have his own house is still far from reality.”
He also warned that the country’s shelter inadequacy will continue to increase if a national housing planning program will not be implemented.
Main cause of housing problem
The lack of decent housing escalates despite the fact that several international treaties, conventions and other standards, such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economics, Social and Cultural Rights, and even the 1987 Philippine Constitution, recognize the right to adequate housing as a fundamental right, which all people are entitled to.
The Philippine Constitution not only mentioned of the Filipinos’ right to adequate housing,
but also that of the right against forced evictions.
“For the past many decades, the housing backlog has been increasing for just only one reason—affordability. People cannot afford to own a house and lot, or a housing unit, because they cannot afford it. If you will make quality and affordable housing units that everybody can afford, everybody can have his or her own house,” Benitez said.
“The issue of affordability affects the majority of our population. Both the informal and formal sectors are unable to afford the available housing units and loans provided by the government.”
He said Region 3 (Central Luzon), Region 4 (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon) and the National Capital Region (NCR) account for about half of the 5.5 million housing needs.
In Metro Manila alone, Benitez said, there are about 600,000 informal settlers.
“Sad to say our people cannot afford a decent housing unit because of affordability issue. Take the NCR as example: the NCR median monthly salary is about P18,000 and, according to studies, you can only afford about 25 percent or 26 percent of that P18,00 for housing, which translates to more or less P4,000. So if you look around Metro Manila, do you think you can rent a unit for P4,000?” he said.
Socialized housing
Noel “Toti” M. Cariño, vice president of the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Association (Creba), said the problem of inadequate housing, especially for the marginalized sector, will persist if the government would continue tightening regulations for housing developers and, at the same time, passing the brunt of the task of providing socialized housing to the private sector.
According to the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992, known as Republic Act 7279, socialized housing is specifically geared toward the low-income segment of society. RA 7279 reads: “Socialized housing refers to housing programs and projects covering houses and lots or home lots only undertaken by the government or the private sector for the underprivileged and homeless citizens which shall include sites and services development, long-term financing, liberalized terms on interest payments, and such other benefits.”
Creba also estimates that the country’s housing backlog is now at 5.5 million units, with socialized housing taking up 600,000 units. Part of the challenge for developers to meet this gap, aside from financing for home buyers, is the stringent regulatory compliance imposed on the private sector, Cariño said.
In RA 7279, under its balanced housing provision, developers are obligated to develop an area for socialized housing equivalent to 20 percent of either their main project’s cost or the project’s area.
This provision is a thorn on the developers’ side, as one of the compliance methods to the 20-percent rule entails a joint-venture partnership, with either a housing agency or a local government unit (LGU)—a situation that often leads to the private sector carrying the greater share of responsibility.
“While we have embraced the 20-percent socialized housing rule, it also behooves us that, in that law, there are requirements for the partnership between national government and private sector to bring about the 20-percent requirement. This is a problem, as the government should do its part in providing the road access, the water access and basically the infrastructure that would make the socialized housing area livable,” Cariño lamented.
Oftentimes, housing units for the poor are situated far from their workplaces, or are inaccessible, leading the inhabitants to illegally squat in Metro Manila and have their designated housing rented out.
Homeless population
Homeless International and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights said around 22.8 million people reside in slum areas in the Philippines.
The two agencies said 1.2 million of these 22.8 million are children who live either by peddling goods or begging on the streets, 70,000 of them coming from Metro Manila alone.
Because of this report, international web site the List25.com has ranked the Philippines as No. 1 in the “25 Cities with Extremely High Homeless Populations.”
Included in the 25 Cities with Extremely High Homeless Populations are New York City; Los Angeles; Moscow; Mexico City; Jakarta; Mumbai; Buenos Aires (Argentina); Budapest (Hungary); São Paulo (Brazil); San Francisco; Seattle (Washington); Athens; San Diego (California); Tampa (Florida); Rome; Washington; Chicago; Tokyo; Baltimore (Maryland); Rio de Janeiro; Dublin (Ireland); Indianapolis (Indiana); Denver (Colorado); and Lisbon (Portugal).
Increasing population
The Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights), in its study on the housing problems in the Philippines, said Metro Manila has joined the ranks of cities in the world with populations exceeding 10 million.
With this, PhilRights said the demand for affordable land and housing remains a huge challenge both to the government and the private sector.
The population of the Philippines has been steadily growing for many years. In 2014 it is the 12th most populated country in the world.
In July last year the Commission on Population marked the birth of the 100-millionth Filipino.
PhilRights, citing the Annual Poverty Indicator Survey of the government, also said four of 10 Filipino families do not have their own house and lot.
“Such a scenario is evidenced by the proliferation of informal settlers in urban and peri-urban areas throughout the country, as well as by the increasing number of families sharing dwelling units,” it said, adding, “this scenario further aggravates the deteriorating quality of life of the poor, as cramped spaces result in higher incidence of sickness and violence that mostly affects women and children.”
According to PhilRights, besides poverty and increasing population, there are several issues contributing to the housing problems of the country.
It said these include high transaction costs due to the confusing and unclear land-use policies; noncooperation of landowners to engage in the Community Mortgage Program; and misinterpretation and/or nonimplementation of LGUs of the provisions set forth by the Urban Development and Housing Act and its implementing rules and regulations.
It added that most LGUs do not have shelter plans and programs that would facilitate proactive planning and results-based targeting of their local shelter concerns, resulting in nonappropriation of budgets, thus, increasing land and housing backlogs. To be continued
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez
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