By Alec Go
The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) said the government has financed and produced 1,076,277 housing units from 2016 to June 2021.
DHSUD Secretary Eduardo Del Rosario reported this in President Rodrigo Duterte’s Sept. 30 public address, saying that this is 84% of the department’s target of 1,280,253 units.
“With this 84%, 96% of housing units are socialized. Ito po ‘yung pinakamababa na ang price ceiling ay P580,000, at ‘yung low-cost or economic housing na ang price ceiling po ay P1.7 million,” he said.
“Ito po ‘yung mga bahay na binibili nung mga sabi natin na low-income families and the poorest of the poor. And we are 12% higher than the previous administration,” he added.
Del Rosario said they “are certain” in accomplishing or surpassing their housing target under the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) for 2022.
Attached agencies’ work
The DHSUD chief said the National Housing Authority provided 336,493 housing assistance and resettlement nationwide, including 63,366 units under the resettlement program, 139,303 units under calamity assistance, 8,419 for government workers, and 8,924 under settlements upgrading.
At least 115,649 families also benefitted from the Emergency Housing Assistance Program of NHA.
“During this administration, wala po tayong maririnig na substandard housing or substandard housing project because we committed ourselves, the whole housing sector,” he said.
The National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation which is involved in the secondary market by providing “additional liquidity to producers of housing,” likewise purchased 15,810 housing units worth 4.3 billion.
The official said the Pag-IBIG Fund breached its net income to P30.27-B in 2017. This continued to increase until 2019, declined in 2020, but remained within the P30-B range.
“But remarkably, in 2021… even though nasa COVID situation tayo, sa first semester of the year umabot na po tayo ng P52.2 billion, ang housing takeout,” he said.
“Even though we are in the COVID situation, we might breach the P100 billion this year, 2021 despite the pandemic condition,” he added.
The Philippines has an estimated housing need of 6.6 million from 2017 to 2022, 3.7 million of which are from informal settler families. The government would need P50 billion a year for the next 20 years for this program alone to meet the demand.
However, the housing sector is only allocated P4 billion to P5 billion annually since 2017. – bny
