Lawmakers are seeking to increase the proposed 2021 budget of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), saying that the country's total housing need is estimated at 6.57 million units by the year 2022.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
Cavite Rep. 2nd District Rep. Strike Revilla, chairperson of the House Committee on House and Urban Development, exhorted his colleagues to augment the P3.683 billion budget approved by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the DHSUD, P2 billion of which has been earmarked for the National Housing Authority (NHA).
The DBM recommended budget for 2021 is only 5.17 percent of the DHSUD’s original proposed budget of P77.060 billion.
“Matagal na po talagang naghihintay ang mga mamayang Pilipino na magkaroon ng disente at abot kayang bahay. This representation strongly supports the proposed 2021 budget for the DHSUD at mariin ko ring hinihiling sa ating mga kasama dito ay kung maaari ay madagdagan ang budget nito," Revilla said during the House Committee on Appropriations’ deliberations on the DHSUD’s proposed 2021 budget on Thursday. (The Filipino people have long been waiting to have their own decent and affordable homes. This representation strongly supports the proposed 2021 budget for the DHSUD and I would like to strongly urge my colleagues, if possible, to increase its budget.)
He said affordable and socialized housing should be made available to the beneficiaries of the government's Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa program.
Iloilo City lone Rep. Julienne “Jam” Baronda said the DHSUD “deserves more,” lamenting that its 2021 budget is only .08 percent of the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021.
“The housing need is now estimated at 6.57 million by 2022 . We know that this deficit has become worse since we have more people who lost their jobs and homes with the COVID-19 pandemic, and sadly, even more faces inevitable evictions in the days to come,” she said.
“It saddens me that affordable and safe housing, which is a very basic need, is once given a minimum budget for 2021. I do not know how this budget will be enough to encourage the production of housing units and address the housing gap,” Baronda said.
She called on her colleagues to restore the original proposed P77.060 budget of DHSUD for next year.
DHSUD Secretary Eduardo Del Rosario told the panel that over the years, the budgets received by housing agencies are "alarmingly getting lower every year.”
He assured them that despite the budget slash, they are trying to "keep up” with their target.
“We are supposed to accomplish 1.4 million housing units for the informal settler families from 2017 to 2022 for a period of five years. So far, we are averaging about 200,000 housing units every year. Of course, the housing department largely depends on the budget allocation,” he said.
"But by using our financial component of the national shelter program, by utilizing the resources of the PAG-IBIG fund, the Social Housing Finance Corp., and the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., we are somehow hitting close to our target of about 87 percent to 90 percent," he added.
Under this year’s national budget, the DHSUD was given P7.832 billion allocation.