Senator Francis Tolentino has emphasized the immediate need for affordable housing programs for Filipinos especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tolentino echoed a United Nations (UN) expert who said that homes are the "frontline defense" against the novel coronavirus infection.
"Kapag sinabi po nating lockdown, stay at home, bahay po yung pinag-uusapan (When we say lockdowns, stay at home, we are talking of homes)," the senator said.
Tolentino cited the statement of Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, who urged states to take "extraordinary measures" to ensure the people's right to housing as a protection against the pandemic.
"Housing has become the front line defense against the coronavirus. Home has rarely been more of a life or death situation," Farha said in a statement last March.
"I am deeply concerned about two specific population groups: those living in emergency shelters, homelessness, and informal settlements, and those facing job loss and economic hardship which could result in mortgage and rental arrears and evictions," said the special rapporteur.
Tolentino, for his part, said, other countries have already "adopted specific measures to protect homeowners and mortgage holders as means to provide their citizens with a first line of defense against the virus."
"So evictions, extensions of rental contracts, deferral of rental payments, these are really the buzz words for this pandemic," he said.
The Senate Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement chaired by Tolentino tackled on Wednesday Senate Bill No. 1778 and Senate Bill No. 203, which propose, among others, the automatic appropriation of funds for the government’s housing agencies to finance a large-scale housing program and address the country's housing backlog.
Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) Secretary said Eduardo del Rosario said the housing gap was estimated to be at 6.57 million by 2022, and if not addressed, would climb to 22.61 million by 2040.
"The passage of the bills would not only fast track the implementation of various government projects but also help us plan ahead of time for future development,” Del Rosario said.
Meanwhile, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua also underscored the importance of adequate housing programs in achieving the country's development goals.
"That is actually what we are aspiring for in our long term vision, the Ambisyon Natin 2040, where no one is poor and there are economic opportunities for everyone. And rightly so, I think one of the key foundational or environmental contributions to aspiring this vision is housing, livable communities," Chua told the committee.
He noted, though, that a "big part" of this housing agenda is to provide a "more balanced" regional development. "So we can provide better opportunities where the people choose to live, where they want to be, whether in major cities, or in the provinces," he said.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) acting chief is also the vice chair of the government's "Balik Probinsya, Balik Pag-asa" program, which aims to decongest Metro Manila's urban areas by encouraging informal settler families to return to their home provinces.
"I think overall there will be a temporary movement of people from congested urban areas to safer areas in the province where there is no congestion. And congestion, really, is one of the biggest sources of COVID-19," Chua told lawmakers.
"But in the medium to long term, it really depends on where the economic opportunities are," he noted.