FINDING ANSWERS
Last week’s great news that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. formally declared as his flagship program the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Program, which aims to build a million homes yearly, is most welcome.
The declaration, contained in Executive Order No. 34 signed on July 17, directs “all national government agencies and instrumentalities, including government-owned or controlled corporations, and local government units, to submit a detailed inventory of all available and suitable lands for the implementation of the program.”
The EO calls on all government entities to cooperate with and provide full support to the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) in the pursuit of the Constitutional provision to “ensure that underprivileged and homeless citizens have access to an adequate, safe, secure, habitable, sustainable, resilient and affordable home.”
Amid the enormous housing shortage estimated to have accumulated to around 6.8 million units according to the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, the success of the flagship program would definitely be a solid, lasting, and extremely significant legacy of PBBM.
There’s no doubt the housing program spearheaded by DHSUD under Secretary Jose Rizalino “Jerry” Acuzar is highly ambitious, considering that the highest average number of homes built under previous administrations reached only 200,000 per year.
But with Sec. Acuzar’s reputation as undisputed housing czar, having been in the business of building and developing residential and commercial properties when he was in the private sector, the flagship program just might reap tremendous success. Especially because he has the right attitude. “Five times the average, I also commit to work five times harder to achieve this,” he once said.
Although building six million homes until 2028 when the term of President Marcos Jr. ends can be very daunting, it is quite possible if RA 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA), as amended by RA 10884 which redefines socialized housing by including residential condominium units in the types of housing projects for the poor, is fully implemented.
The landmark legislation called UDHA is often referred to as Lina Law after I principally authored it in 1992 when I was senator. Sadly, while UDHA clearly provides the mechanism for affordable housing, no administration until now has ever taken the cudgels to implement socialized housing as a legacy program.
Consequently, three decades since the law was passed and ought to be implemented fully by LGUs, cities have grown unaided by proper urban planning, congested squatter communities have proliferated, resulting in the enormous and highly problematic social housing shortage. Subhuman conditions still characterize the lives of millions of our countrymen forced to live amid squalor and disease on government and private lands, or in danger areas.
Socialized housing under RA 7279 is supposed to be the primary strategy of the government to provide affordable decent housing to the poorest of the poor. Socialized housing should include basic services for beneficiaries such as electricity, water, sanitation, roads, and schools. The socialized housing sites must be near areas where work and livelihood are present or accessible. In-city or in-town socialized housing must be top priority.
The law states that subdivision and condo developers are “required to develop an area for socialized housing equivalent to at least 15 percent of the total subdivision area or total subdivision project cost and at least five percent of condominium area or project cost.” Various incentives, including tax cuts, are provided to developers who undertake socialized housing projects.
LGUs should be at the forefront of UDHA implementation. They are allowed to impose socialized housing tax on real properties and on idle lands to raise funds for socialized housing. Within a year from the law’s passage in 1992, all city and municipal governments were supposed to identify and register beneficiaries, and conduct inventory of all lands within their jurisdiction.
After inventory, LGUs were supposed to “identify lands for socialized housing and resettlement areas for the immediate and future needs of the underprivileged and homeless in the urban areas, taking into consideration the degree of availability of basic services and facilities, their accessibility and proximity to job sites and other economic opportunities, and the actual number of registered beneficiaries.”
UDHA’s Section 30, Article 7 on prohibition of new illegal structures states that the LGU head “who allows, abets or otherwise tolerates the construction of any structure in violation of this section shall be liable to administrative sanctions under existing laws and to penal sanctions (up to six years imprisonment) provided for in this Act.”
Urban renewal and addressing the needs of the homeless poor as provided in the Constitution are UDHA’s primary objectives. Yet 31 years since becoming law, it’s as if it never existed in many areas of the country. But now, with PBBM declaring socialized housing as flagship program, hopes are high that the severe housing crisis would finally end. ([email protected])