Act in Congress, not acting in drama

He may come from a movie/show business family, but Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito avoids with dread the continuing “drama” in the 17th Congress. In particular, Sen. Ejercito pointed to the ongoing Senate public hearing on the alleged extra-judicial killings.

Although he attended the first public hearing, the neophyte senator was disappointed that so much time is being spent to non-productive issues at Congress.

The 46-year-old senator comes from a political family. He is the son of former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada by former actress and the current mayor of San Juan City Guia Gomez. Erap himself is a former action star.

His half-brother, former senator Jinggoy Estrada also dabbles in movie acting. The two of them were senators during the 15th Congress. Jinggoy’s second and last term, however, was cut short by the plunder case filed against him by the previous administration over the alleged misuse of his pork barrel funds. He remains in detention while undergoing trial at the Sandiganbayan.

JV himself is undergoing trial at the Sandiganbayan over the alleged misappropriation of P2-million calamity funds of San Juan City when he was mayor in 2008. The ombudsman indicted him and several other former and incumbent San Juan City officials for allegedly buying long firearms for the San Juan police to stave off rising criminal incidents in the city.

Saying he wants speedy justice done, JV asked his lawyers not to engage in any dilatory tactics, but seek the immediate dismissal of the case through a demurrer. He insisted there was no violation of the law since the P2-million calamity funds were replenished after the Commission on Audit called their attention to it. He offered no alibi unlike typical politicians who would say it is only a politically motivated suit.

Allowing us to call him simply JV for short, the senator would rather discuss more pressing and urgent national and local concerns during our regular breakfast forum at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay last Wednesday. As the chairman of the Senate committee on urban planning and housing, JV talked about his pet bills in the 17th Congress.

He told us about his bill seeking the creation of the Department of Housing, which he first filed during the 15th Congress. Unfortunately, because of the so many controversial Senate investigations conducted “in aid of legislation” prior to the May 9 presidential elections, the proposal and other priority bills pending at legislative mills never got to see the light of day.

JV refiled his pet bill, but renamed it to create a Department of Human Settlements as a “more encompassing” legislation. Though it sounded Marcosian, JV shrugged it off as a non-issue. Under the bill, all existing housing agencies will be placed under the proposed department to address the basic requirements needed by people to live in any government housing projects.
Under the present setup, housing agencies are under the umbrella of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, which is headed by Vice President Leni Robredo. There are at least six agencies under the HUDCC umbrella.

These are the National Housing Authority (NHA), Home Mutual Development Fund or Pag-IBIG, National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC), Home Guaranty Corp. (HGC), Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HULRB) and the Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC).

Browsing through a government directory, I discovered there is also an agency called Human Settlements Development Corp. It is uncertain whether this agency still exists or renamed into something else. Notably, however, except for the NHA and HULRB, the rest of the HUDCC-attached agencies are classified as government financial institutions.

As mayor of San Juan City for nine years, JV conceptualized the in-city housing project to address the problem with informal settlers, not squatters, a politically incorrect term. The in-city housing project, he explained, does not require informal settlers to be relocated elsewhere.

Based on the experience of both the national and local governments, JV said relocation is not the solution to the illegal squatting problem. Relocation only causes a “vicious” cycle because, he explained, informal settlers who were plucked from their former shanties near their livelihood or school, sell their rights to the housing unit and resort to living again in open, abandoned spaces then put up another shanty over their heads.

JV said each family of informal settlers in San Juan City is given priority to a 28 square meter-housing unit in a four-story housing building. Those who occupy the first floor pay a monthly rental of P1,000, those on the second floor pay P800 a month, and much cheaper for those on the third and fourth floors. “It is like they live in condos which are even bigger than those being leased by SM,” JV pointed out.   

He disclosed that when VP Robredo visited the San Juan in-city housing project, the HUDCC head was very much impressed with the “happy looks and smiling” occupants who welcomed her in their homes. Obviously, the VP told him, they are satisfied with the living conditions at the housing project. JV said the VP suggested this in-city housing project could be replicated nationwide by the HUDCC.

JV conceded the city government of San Juan must look for vacant lots to construct another in-city housing project given the migration and growing population in the country.

Sen. Ejercito is also one of the three authors of the bill seeking to grant emergency powers to President Duterte to address the transport and traffic congestion crisis.

On his Twitter account, the senator disclosed he is also trying to generate a national debate on the proposed rehabilitation and operation of the 600-megawatt Bataan nuclear power plant (BNPP) in Morong, Bataan. Given the high cost of power in the Philippines, he said the country has been losing its competitiveness to entice investors to come here.

As far as JV is concerned, there is not much “drama” regarding his activities in Congress.

But as lawmakers, they have to act on legislative matters instead of being involved in drama at Congress.