ARTICLES RELATED TO HOUSING

Occupants of Pandi housing harassed by military-backed group

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO / September 11, 2019 /Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Some 200 “pro-government forces” ransacked urban poor group Kadamay’s office in Atlantica, a government
housing program in Pandi, Bulacan last Sept. 9.

The group, Pagkakaisa Mamamayan Tungo sa Kaayusan, which describes itself as “pro-Duterte” and “anti-Kadamay,”
burned down Kadamay’s flag and hundreds of copies of newspaper Pinoy Weekly and stole a masterlist of all Kadamay
members in the area, and office belongings such as two electric fans, a television set and two LPG tanks. The group was
accompanied by elements of the Philippines Army’s 48th Infantry Battalion and Philippine National Police-Pandi.
The incident is just among the series of threats and harassment against occupants of the government housing program in
Pandi, Bulacan. “Pro-government forces” backed up by military have long been attempting to break their ranks, a local
leader said.

“They have long been trying to divide our ranks and our unity in our struggle. They (pro-government forces) have been
convincing our members to leave Kadamay,” Minda Lomeda, Kadamay – Pandi vice president, told Bulatlat in a phone
interview.
Since Sept. 4, soldiers have been deployed in their community, harassing Kadamay leaders. At least two local leaders Pat
Tupaz and Obet Lunzaga received death threats.

Militarization of Pandi housing

In an earlier statement, Kadamay’s national office questioned why Pagkakaisa Mamamayan Tungo sa Kaayusan is handing
out certification forms bearing the name the National Housing Authority.

Kadamay National Chairperson Gloria Arellano said, “Why are they acting as if they have the right to give away houses?
Were they given that authority because they are backed by the military? Why are they offering these certificates to
Kadamay members when their entry passes are supposedly being processed now by the National Housing Authority?” said
Arellano.

This group, she added, has been red-tagging Kadamay and has even fired warning shots in the past.

Last elections, two youth leaders from Pandi, Bulacan were forcibly disappeared and surfaced charged with trumped-up
cases. Recently, both were reported to have been denied access to their doctor after they complained of chronic fever
possibly due to the poor conditions inside a detention facility in Bulacan.

Arellano said the militarization of the Pandi housing shows how government policies such as the Executive Order 70 and
Oplan Kapantagan “ruthlessly targets Kadamay since it is a vocal critic of the Duterte administration.”

Urban poor struggle

Two years ago, Kadamay led the occupation of idle government housing units in Pandi, Bulacan.

They were eventually allowed by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte, with a stern warning to have them arrested, or
shot should they resist, if they do it again.

Despite the vilification against Kadamay, it continued to push for lobbying before the National Housing Authority for the
distribution of the housing units they are occupying and the provision of electricity and water supply.

Lomeda said they have been working on providing a sewing livelihood program for residents. However, the expensive
electricity supply in their community proves to be challenging, with residents getting their supply under a “sub-meter”
arrangement, where they pay a more expensive rate.

They have also been monitoring prices of drinking water being sold in the area, ensuring that local businesses will not take
advantage of their dire living conditions.

Irony of it all
Reently, Lomeda said that these “pro-government forces” have been leading the occupation of still empty government
housing programs and attribute these initiatives to Kadamay.
In a separate statement, Arellano said that the mere fact that Duterte’s supporters themselves are occupying empty
government housing units exposes how grave the problems are.

But instead of squarely addressing the housing problems, Arellano said that Duterte has been paying more attention on
attacking Kadamay. She asked: “Did Duterte do something to resolve the problem of homelessness? Has our housing
backlog decreased?”
NHA to complete add'l 62K Yolanda housing units by 2020
By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora / July 23, 2019, 5:15 pm / Philippine News Agency

MANILA-- The National Housing Authority (NHA) said it targets to complete at least 62,668 housing projects between 2019
and 2020.

In a report responding to issues raised by some protesters, the NHA said the government has already finished a total of
119,670 housing units from the targeted 205,128. Of this figure, 56,877 are already occupied and 62,793 are ready for
occupancy.

"Within 2019 and up to 2020, another 62,668 houses and lots will have been completed, and 22,790 housing units will be
in various stages of documentation prior to project starts," the report signed by NHA chairman Marcelino Escalada Jr. said.

According to the report, challenges remain in completing the Yolanda housing projects such as limited local government-
owned lands especially if taken in the context of the magnitudes of the housing need.

The NHA also cited as issues the staggered release of the budget for the project's implementation; the delayed submission
of documentary requisites to NHA; change of site due to non-suitability after issuance of Mines and Geosciences Bureau
Clearance; as well as delayed issuance of permits from local government units and clearances/permits from government
agencies.

On the government's task force Balik Loob housing program, the NHA said it has undertaken the re-allocation of existing
Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

"To date, 2,244 units have been completed while another 381 are on-going construction. As of July 16, 2019, at least 300
units have been awarded to former rebel beneficiaries in Davao City," it added.

In the report, the NHA also assured that it continues to implement programs for social development and welfare services.

"From 2013 to 2018, the IP (indigenous people) Housing Program of the NHA has completed 4,727 housing units, developed
796 lots, and repaired 19 homes in Regions 2 (Cagayan Valley), 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula), Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao, 10 (Northern Mindanao), 11 (Davao Region), 12 (Soccsksargen) and 13 (Caraga). Within the year and up to 2020,
the program will be completing 2,238 housing units and 107 lots in Regions 5, 9, ARMM, 10, 11, 12 and 13, " it said. (PNA)

The National Housing Authority (NHA) eyes to complete an additional 62,000 housing units for Yolanda victims by 2020.
Housing backlog seen widening
By Maria Romero / July 17, 2019 01:36 AM / tribune.net.ph

The country’s housing backlog continues to deteriorate, the current number affecting 4.5 million families seen expanding
to 6.5 million families by 2030.

According to the non-profit organization Habitat for Humanity, dwelling issues continue to hound the Philippines due to
insufficient supply of affordable housing. Such should be made available to the growing population to alleviate poverty in
the country.

“Our current backlog is at 4.5 million families and that’s set to balloon to 2030 to around 6.5 million families. So, if you just
multiply that with the average family size of five, you can just imagine how large the problem is,” Habitat for Humanity
Resource Development and Communications Director Jamie Santos-Sugay told reporters on Monday.

Based on a 2016 study titled “Impact of Housing Activities on the Philippine Economy,” the national housing requirement
from 2016 to 2030 is 5.6 million.

With the current backlog, the figure is seen to balloon to 6.5 million by 2030.

Another study compiled by the Center for Research and Communication of the University of Asia and the Pacific (CRC-
UA&P) show the backlog could potentially aggregate 12.3 million by 2030.

In the Philippines, homes under the affordable sector are categorized into three segments by the Housing and Urban
Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC): Socialized housing typically costing P450,000; economic housing ranging from
P450,000 to P1.7 million; and low-cost housing costing P1.7 million to P3 million.

To mitigate the affordable housing problem, Habitat for Humanity created five hubs across the country to more efficiently
build houses that are calamity-resilient.

“We engage the local government units in our projects for very practical reasons. They know the lay of the land and the
selection process of the beneficiaries who needed (help) the most.
We do work with almost all related government agencies to address the issue,” Sugay said.

Over the past 30 years, Habitat for Humanity’s hubs and other projects in the Philippines have served 150,000 families.

Kelly Koch, Habitat for Humanity CEO, said while addressing solutions to climate change is important, building resilient
homes in the Philippines which are prone to calamities is an even more important factor that needs to be considered to
create a lasting solution to the housing problems.
Avert housing crisis – Angara
By Hannah Torregoza / March 31, 2019, 9:27 PM /Manila Bulletin

Reelectionist Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara has urged the government to start taking concrete actions to address
the housing backlog in the country and avert a possible housing crisis

Senator Juan Edgardo ‘’Sonny’’ M. Angara

Angara pointed out that despite a booming real estate industry in the Philippines, the government is performing poorly in
terms of providing homeless citizens with permanent shelter.

The senator warned that the country’s housing backlog could balloon up to 12 million by 2030 and the homeless population
could reach crisis proportions unless the government steps up efforts to provide them with permanent shelter.

The senator made the call during an event organized by the Chamber of Real Estate & Builders’ Associations Inc. (CREBA)
in Makati City.

“Out of a population of roughly 106 to 108 million Filipinos, some 4.5 million don’t have any shelter and up to two-thirds
of that number—3 million—are here in Metro Manila,” Angara pointed out.

Citing a 2016 study by the University of Asia and the Pacific, the lawmaker assessed that the housing backlog could reach
12 million in the next decade—including the over six million units backlog from 2001 to 2015—unless action is taken.

Ironically, Angara noted that these figures came out in the midst of a thriving real estate industry, which from 2014 and
2018 contributed up to 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and taken up more than 18 percent of
total bank loans.

While the market had a surplus of up to 561,000 units in mid- and high-cost housing in 2015, the gap for socialized,
economic, low and even free housing was more than 11 times than that number, which are around 6.67 million units.

“In short, our real estate industry may be booming, but we’re doing poorly when it comes to sheltering our people and
providing them with homes,” lamented the lawmaker, who is running under the platform “Alagang Angara.”

Angara said housing plays a central, crucial role in the lives of poor Filipinos, saying that poverty eradication is unlikely to
be met without addressing basic housing needs.

“Such housing crisis is just one piece of the greater puzzle that plagues our country—that of chronic poverty,” Angara said.

“And although it is but one aspect of the problem, it is nevertheless critical. Because without a home, one cannot plant
their roots; one cannot lay down the stable foundation on which everything else in their lives should be built,” he stressed.

According to Angara, a paradigm shift in housing policy and practice amid the growing urgency is a must in order to provide
adequate, safe and affordable housing to millions of Filipino households.

Likewise, the senator urged the government to spend more for housing to ensure that all Filipinos have access to decent
homes.

He said data from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) showed that between 2000 and 2014, the Philippines spent only 0.12
percent of GDP for housing, in stark contrast to the average 0.75 of GDP spent by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,
Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal and Sri Lanka for the sector.

Angara, for his part, earlier fought for the retention of the value added tax (VAT) exemption for socialized and low-cost
housing while Congress was deliberating on the government’s tax reform program.

Under the tax reform program, socialized housing units that cost P450,000 and below and low-cost housing units priced at
P1.7-million and P3-million remain VAT-free.

He said various studies showed that lifting the exemption would only drag down all efforts at solving the housing backlog.
Angara was the author and co-sponsor of the newly enacted law creating the Department of Human Settlements and Urban
Development (DHSUD).

The DHSUD, a single agency focused on housing and human settlement issues, was finally realized after languishing in the
legislative mill for 27 years, spanning nine Congresses.

Angara said he believes that with the creation of DHSUD, the real work towards addressing the housing problem has just
commenced.

“Given the gravity of the problems we face, I don’t think we should wait another three decades before we enact even more
major reforms to our housing policies and programs,” Angara said.
Housing department laments P6.2-billion budget too small
Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star) - August 26, 2019 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Budget and Management–approved P6.2-billion budget for the newly
created Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) will definitely take its toll on the mass
housing projects of the Duterte administration, an official warned.

“Definitely with that budget, we could not reach our target. This is the sad state of the housing sector with the budget being
given by the DBM,” Secretary Eduardo del Rosario lamented during a recent budget hearing at the House of
Representatives.

The DHSUD chief said that such meager allocation would only allow the agency to build 12,161 housing units next year
instead of its original target of 101,000 units based on the initial proposal of P48.8 billion, which was drastically cut to 12.8
percent of the amount.

Del Rosario told the House committee on appropriations that based on the Philippine Development Plan or PDP for 2017
to 2022, their target should be 131,000 housing units per year. Hence, there will definitely be a disconnect between the
PDP and the current approved budget.

Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, whose lawyer-husband Miro used to head Pag-IBIG during the time of former president
Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, warned that the biggest losers are the National Housing Authority and the Social Housing Finance
Corporation.

The neophyte opposition lawmaker said the NHA asked for a budget of P33.5 billion but was given only P3.2 billion. That of
the SHFC, which asked for P10.12 billion, was also slashed to only P1.3 billion.

“This is really a big one, I’ve never seen cuts as big as these,” Quimbo observed.
She said the SHFC’s utilization rate is a negative because the agency is actually using its own funds.
In his budget message, President Duterte instructed the DHSUD to speed up the delivery of financing for shelters,
particularly those for the poor.

At least P642 million was allocated for the department (the amount still excludes those allocated to other
attached agencies), its first ever, in the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020 that was submitted to
Congress last week.

This amount was for the DHSUD “proper,” and is on top of the funds from attached agencies earmarked for
housing loans and assistance.

“This administration has believed that providing a house for every Filipino family goes beyond merely giving them a roof
over their heads and walls around their belongings. It includes the assurance of safety and security, which transforms every
house into a sustainable and livable home for the family,” Duterte said.

The law creating the DHSUD, signed last February, was authored by then senator Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sen. Sonny Angara,
then speaker Arroyo, and Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez, among others.

Duterte said he has instructed his economic managers to prioritize the operationalization of the DHSUD, which will
“strengthen policymaking and regulation to ensure that its key housing agencies will have enough in their war chest to
address shelter issues, and will maximize resources to make our communities safer and more secure.

Various housing-related government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and agencies were attached or
consolidated with the new department.

They include the National Housing Authority (NHA); Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board; National Home Mortgage
Finance Corp. (NHMFC); Home Development Mutual Fund; Home Guaranty Corp., and Social Housing Finance Corporation
(SHFC).
 For 2020, the SHFC will channel P897 million for the Housing Program for Informal Settler Families residing in danger areas
in Metro Manila, and provide houses with land tenure security to some 8,711 ISFs.

The NHA was mandated to spend P3.3 billion next year to construct 3,517 housing units on top of those pending from their
remaining funds this year as of June 30 amounting to P8.1 billion.

The NHMFC is slated to disburse P1 billion for its Socialized Housing Loan Take-Out of Receivables to buy loan receivable
from socialized housing “originators” to improve low-income families’ access to financing.

The country’s housing backlog is expected to hit 6.8 million by 2022.

During the House hearing, which was presided by northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza, other lawmakers also took advantage of
the deliberations to inquire about the status of their individual concerns, among them the housing for
Typhoon Yolanda victims and the 2017 Marawi siege.

Women’s group Rep. Arlene Brosas of Gabriela cited the Commission on Audit report about the delay in the implementation
of housing projects for the Yolanda victims since only 117,167 housing units were completed out of the targeted 203,000
units since 2013.

Marcelino Escalada, general manager of the National Housing Authority, pointed out that the reckoning date should not be
2013 when the typhoon struck, but from the date DBM released funds for that purpose.

“The P59-billion budget was not released to the NHA in 2013. The NHA got the rest of the remaining funds of P5.4 billion
only this year,” he said.

He added that NHA did not cause the delays as the construction periods are fixed or specified in the government contracts.

Muslim Rep. Yasser Alonto Balindong of Lanao del Sur, meanwhile, inquired about the proposed budget for the Marawi
rehabilitation in 2020.

“When can we say that the Maranao homeland is fully restored?” Balindong asked. – With Paolo Romero
Pittance for housing
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:20 AM June 28, 2019

President Duterte did the right thing by signing in February this year the law creating the Department of Human
Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD). The department’s primary mandate is to ensure that Filipinos
have access to affordable housing, which has become an acute need over the years as the population has
swelled, urbanization has accelerated and the housing backlog has only gotten worse.

In 2015, the backlog stood at 6.7 million units (priced below P3 million, covering low-cost to socialized housing for the
underprivileged and the homeless). The new housing need for 2016 to 2030 is 5.6 million, according to the September 2016
report “Impact of Housing Activities on the Philippine Economy” by Winston Padojinog, president of the University of Asia and
the Pacific.

But, while the President did create a new housing department to address this problem, the required budget for
the program, it seems, was left out. The country’s mass housing developers recently brought this to light when
it deplored the massive cut in the national budget for housing from a peak of P37.7 billion in 2014 to a mere
P2.8 billion in 2019.

The Organization of Socialized and Economic Housing Developers of the Philippines Inc. (OSHDP) and the
Socialized Housing Alliance Roundtable Endeavor (SHARE) said the allocation for housing this year accounted for
a miniscule 0.07 percent of the national budget—surely not enough to even begin hacking away at the housing
backlog.

Then there’s the dire lack of funds to support the planned activities of the DHSUD, which is yet to formally begin
operations as the implementing rules and regulations are still being finalized.

OSHDP and SHARE said in a joint statement that, as currently crafted, the proposed budget to bankroll the
DHSUD will come from the combined 2019 budget of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council
and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board. However, SHARE president Marcelino Mendoza lamented:
“Overlooked is the fact that the new law mandates the performance of new and major functions to include the
identification, conversion and management of idle government lands for housing, creation of one-stop
processing centers, and planning for housing of disaster-prone areas, all of which require huge new
appropriations.”

“The creation of DHSUD involves a paradigm shift in the approach to public housing as a solution to the housing
backlog. It would place priority on construction of medium- and high-rise buildings using centrally located
government lands, so beneficiaries in the inner city would be better served. Singapore is the best model for this,
and the government must provide the necessary funding requirements,” Mendoza added.

Why the drastic budget cut despite the administration’s purported push for greater mass housing? Perhaps the
President’s former right-hand man and now newly minted senator, Bong Go, can be asked to resolve the
contradiction. Go, who is expected to chair the Senate’s urban planning, housing and resettlement committee,
has committed to prioritize programs to address the housing needs of the homeless and informal settlers. He’s
been quoted as saying that the number of homeless Filipinos in the nation’s capital alone—estimates say one of
every five residents in Metro Manila is an informal settler—is “simply unacceptable.”
Indeed—so perhaps the new senator can begin his term by asking Malacañang to walk the talk by restoring
adequate funding for the socialized housing program. The DHSUD also needs help not only in terms of budget,
but in the leeway required to reboot the entire system—by revising pertinent laws, if necessary, on the part of
Congress.

As OSHDP and SHARE pointed out, addressing the housing backlog will require a fresh approach to the budget
process, given the labyrinthine permitting and implementing processes. “Housing projects should have
multiyear continuing appropriations, as projects typically are of long gestation. Permits alone would have to go
through 27 offices, 78 permits, 146 signatures, and a total of 373 documents.” This “excruciating gridlock”
among the many government bodies involved in mass housing has to be broken if the new department is to
stand a yeoman’s chance of success in extending housing to those who need it most.

On paper, the DHSUD is up—but money and political will are still needed for it to deliver decent housing to
Filipinos, which, as the Constitution itself says, is a right, not a privilege.