ILOILO – The National Housing Authority (NHA) will redistribute unoccupied houses the agency built for the government’s uniformed personnel, according to Sen. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito who inspected such houses in Barangay Cruz, Barotac Nuevo town on Saturday.
The Senate and the House of Representatives have passed a joint resolution authorizing the NHA to redistribute units that are unoccupied and/or were waived by their supposed beneficiaries, Ejercito said.
“Ire-redistribute ito sa mga willing takers and qualified beneficiaries,” said the chairman of the Senate committee on urban planning and housing.
Some 60,000 such houses were built across the country for P12 billion.
Around 57,000 – including several in Barotac Nuevo – remained unoccupied, said Ejercito.
These houses were intended for active members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and the Bureau of Fire Protection.
In Barotac Nuevo, 1,050 such housing units were constructed in 2012 but only a few are currently occupied.
Earlier NHA Region 6 estate supervisor Rhodora Lim said 743 of the housing units in Barangay Cruz, Barotac Nuevo have been turned over to beneficiaries.
But some families may have opted not to stay in their houses due to the reassignment to other areas of their police or military spouses, Lim had said.
Three hundred units, on the other hand, were reserved for beneficiaries of police officers and soldiers killed in action, she had said.
Congress already investigated this nationwide NHA project “two to three years ago,” according to Ejercito.
Supposed beneficiaries complained then that they were not involved during planning and the units were too small at only 24 square meters each, said the senator.
Moreover, some beneficiaries said most of the housing sites were far from transport terminals, medical facilities and schools, he added.
But – upon the order of President Rodrigo Duterte – the government is currently trying to carry out reforms in this housing program for uniformed personnel, Ejercito told the press.
For instance, the NHA will no longer build new housing units at only 24 square meters.
The minimum area will now be 40 square meters and beneficiaries will have two more options – 60 square meters and 80 square meters – he said.
“We are trying to make the housing units more acceptable to our men in uniform,” the senator said in Filipino, adding that beneficiaries who have already received their units may retain them.
Ejercito also clarified that these houses were not free and thus cannot be occupied by just anyone – like what an urban poor group did in a similar housing project in Bacolod City.
Prior to his inspection in Barotac Nuevo, Ejercito also went to the housing project in Barangay Felisa, Bacolod City on Friday where there was a standoff between the urban poor group and the police.
“There is a P200 to P300 monthly amortization,” Ejercito said. “It’s a small amount that the NHA could use in building more houses.”
‘DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING’
Meanwhile Ejercito hopes his bill on the creation of a “Department of Housing” gets passed before October this year.
Senate Bill 1578 seeks to “consolidate and harmonize” all housing-related government agencies, including the NHA, the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG), and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, among others.
“We want to have them all under one roof para isang direction na lang,” said Ejercito. “This is expected to improve the quality of the government’s housing program.”
Moreover the new department is seen to address public housing backlog, which currently stands at 1.2 million units, Ejercito said.
“We hope to wipe this backlog off in 10 to 15 years with the new department. If we don’t do anything, by 2022, kung ganito pa rin ang pace [ng construction] ay aabot ng 6 million ang backlog,” he warned./PN
