MANILA — A party-list lawmaker on Tuesday appealed to the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) to freeze residential rent rates for poor and middle-income Filipino families.
Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy said HUDCC should consider the rental freeze at this time of rising inflation, high fuel prices, and peso depreciation against the dollar.
“Most ideal is that the residential rent rates of all kinds of units of the poor and middle-class are frozen at current levels because any rent hikes at this time will just inflict more suffering,” Herrera-Dy said.
HUDCC is given the authority under Republic Act 9653 or the Rent Control Act of 2009 to determine the setting and coverage of increases in residential rates. The law aims to protect poor and middle-income families from unreasonable rent increases.
Herrera-Dy, however, said that if any study, report, or management decision of the HUDCC determines that rent hikes are necessary, the rate hike should not be more than the 2018 annual inflation rate based on 2012 prices as determined by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
She cited government economic experts that inflation this year could be 4 to 5 percent.
She proposed three tiers of rent bracketing and corresponding allowable rent increase applicable nationwide: the first bracket with up to PHP4,000 per month rent (3 percent maximum allowable rent increase); second bracket with PHP4,001 to PHP10,000 per month (4 percent maximum allowable rent increase); and third bracket with PHP10,000 to PHP20,000 per month rent (5 percent maximum allowable rent increase).
“This I believe is fair to most Filipino families who rent apartments and other residential units, but still allows landlords to recover from the cost of inflation,” Herrera-Dy said. (Filane Mikee Cervantes/PNA)
