MANILA — The Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) on Thursday said all key shelter agencies must take “immediate actions” to address the still inflated housing backlog in the Philippines.
“Malaki ‘yong backlog ng ating pamahalaan sa housing. Pinag-uusapan nga na kung ‘di masinop ang ating pamahalaan by 2022, maybacklog na six million housing units so kailangan immediate action and dapat gagawin ng lahat ng key shelter agencies para tugunan ito(There’s a huge housing backlog. It was discussed that if the government would be negligent, by 2022, that backlog will grow by 6 million housing units so there’s a need for an immediate action on the part of the shelter agencies to address this),” PCUP Chairman Noel Felongco said.
As of this posting, urban poor community leaders from various regions and national government agencies are attending the two-day National Urban Poor Summit (NUPS) 2018 organized by the PCUP and the Office of the Cabinet Secretary.
The summit is aimed at crafting a consolidated report on ways to move forward and addressing the housing issues in cities of the Philippines.
“We are grateful for this summit because the HUDCC (Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council) and other government agencies are here to present measures to address such problems,” Felongco said.
“After this two-day summit, we’ll consolidate the commitments of the shelter agencies and other national agencies then we’ll be the ones to monitor its implementation later on,” he said in Filipino.
When asked for targets, Felongco said at least 200,000 to 300,000 housing units should be given to beneficiaries yearly.
“Dito lang mismo sa Metro Manila, sinasabi nating malaki ang backlog so dapat ‘yang backlog na ‘yan dapat maunti-unti. Our key shelter agencies said dapat mga 200,000 to 300,000 ang mabigay na houses sa beneficiaries per year (In Metro Manila alone, there’s a large number of backlogs so we need to at least lessen it. According to our shelter agencies, there should be at least 200,000 to 300,000 housing units given to beneficiaries yearly),” he said.
Last year, the HUDCC revealed that the country’s housing needs will balloon to 6.8 million by 2022, including the two million housing backlog from previous years. (Joyce Ann L. Rocamora/PNA)
