DURING the second State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., he vowed to expand the administration’s flagship “Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino Housing Program” (4PH) to provide affordable housing to millions of homeless Filipinos.
He said that over 100,000 Filipinos availed of housing loan from Pag-IBIG. This is equivalent to P117 billion in total. There were also 148,000 houses and 30,000 certificates of eligibility for lot awards given across the country.
As of June 30, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) has signed a memorandum of understanding with 155 local government units and has broken ground for 28 housing projects.
I was privileged to be part of and witnessed one of these projects with DHSUD. The latter is the primary government entity responsible for the management of housing settlements nationwide and will serve as the lead implementing agency of the housing projects.
The target of the present administration is to build and provide six million housing units for families.
Due to these projects, the government should ensure that our lands should be preserved and protected. One of the ways to do this is to pass and enact laws on land use for protecting our country’s land and water use. There is already a proposed National Land Use Act (NLUA) which is still pending.
The NLUA will govern the management and execution of a comprehensive land use system and physical planning mechanism in terms of land protection, production, infrastructure use, and settlement issues. It will harmonize all claims on the land and protect the general welfare of present and future generations through proper management of limited resources.
It is the policy of the State under the NLUA to “hold owners and users of the land responsible for developing and conserving their lands, thereby making these productive and supportive of sustainable development and environmental stability in accordance with the principle that the use of the land bears a social function and that all economic agents shall contribute to the common good.”
One of its features to fast track the housing projects of the administration is the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP). This embodies a set of policies, accompanied by maps and similar illustrations that serve as a policy guide for determining the future use of lands and natural resources within the territorial jurisdiction of the local government units.
The CLUP includes the processes and criteria employed in such determination of the allocation of land and resources. It is a plan for the long-term management of the local territory covering a period of a minimum of 10 years, reviewable not earlier than every five years based on the four categories of land use planning.
Hoping that this proposal will be prioritized to protect future generations, adapt to climate change, and secure shelter and livelihood./PN
