Creation of housing department sought

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo yesterday pushed for the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to address the country’s housing problem.

“We will try to convince President Duterte to certify (a bill creating a housing department) as urgent so we don’t need to pass the problem to other agencies,” she said in an interview in Bocaue, Bulacan.

Robredo, who chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), said bills pushing for the creation of a housing department remained pending in the Senate and House of Representatives in the past years.

She said Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno has agreed that there should be a housing department. 

The Vice President visited yesterday the housing projects of the National Housing Authority in Barangay Batia for low-salaried military personnel.

The housing units were built in 2011 but to date only 800 of the 4,000 units are occupied as many of the residents are on field assignment. 

Robredo said the HUDCC has a lot of plans to address the housing backlog but could not implement these due to lack of mandate. 

“We need to transfer these (plans) to the Office of the President for them to create an executive order. This makes the process longer,” she stressed.

“One of the limitations of HUDCC is we are not a department but just a coordinating council, we don’t have the mandate to execute programs,” she said.

Meanwhile, Robredo said the HUDCC has recommended to key shelter agencies to have a moratorium on building socialized housing units. 

“It’s better if we have a moratorium for a few months, let’s not build houses yet. We should resume building once we have fixed the problems,” the Vice President said. 

Robredo said it has become the mindset of previous housing officials to consider the number of houses built as their accomplishments.

“It’s not an accomplishment, but just a project. Accomplishment is when you are able to change the quality of lives of the people to whom you have given homes,” she said.

Robredo also said that she was asked by the President whether she would like to have an increase in the budget of the HUDCC. The Vice President said she refused Duterte’s offer pending a comprehensive housing plan.

“Of course we are not contented with our budget. But I don’t want to ask for more when we still lack the plan,” she said.

Robredo has been pushing for in-city relocation wherein informal settler families will not be relocated outside the cities where they presently reside.