I CONSIDER the late Dr. Jose Conrado Benitez (Jolly or JCB as we used to call him) as my mentor in public housing in particular and human settlements in general.
I was still very young when my fate brought me to the University of Life (UL) where I was appointed as a Fellow, among a few as I could recall. Since very few could understand what a Fellow was at that time, I presented myself as a Marketing Consultant, which more or less suited my job at the Public Affairs Office (PAO).
In reality, however, I was actually seconded to the UL from the Bliss Marketing Corporation (BLISSMARK) where I was an Assistant Vice President and Group Product Manager. Prior to that, I was also seconded to the National Livelihood Program Secretariat (NLPS), for the purpose of organizing what eventually became the Kilusang Kabuhayan at Kaunlaran (KKK).
Just to put this conversation in the right perspective, the Philippines at that time was under a parliamentary form of government; hence we had a Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS). Early on however, Dr. Benitez apparently realized the limitations of a bureaucratic agency doing fast paced development work, and that is perhaps the reason why he created the Human Settlements Development Corporation (HSDC) as the corporate arm of the MHS.
Up to now, I really believe that that is a very practical approach, to create a corporate arm under a bureaucratic agency. That was really a brilliant move on the part of Jolly, if I may say so myself. Down the line, that was also the reason why BLISSMARK was created as a subsidiary of HSDC, as I understand it. Although BLISSMARK was positioned to be a marketing and trading company, its primary mission was to help the public housing program by buying and selling the products coming from the livelihood projects of the MHS.
As it always happened, Jolly was always in the mood to lecture about the complete human settlements program, and it so happened that I was always available to listen to his lectures.
Of course, it could be said that it was actually my job to listen to his lectures, but the fact is, I actually enjoyed listening to him, and I really learned so much from him, absorbing his bits of wisdom like a sponge, so to speak. Up to this day, I could claim that I am actually one of the very few ādisciplesā of Jolly who has practically absorbed most of what he said at that time, including the secondary mortgage program that was his pet project, a project that has seemingly disappeared from the public housing ecosystem.
Very early on, I already learned from Jolly that housing is not a technology problem because in reality, housing is a financing problem. In other words, there are many ways to build an affordable house, but there should be at least one way to make public housing affordable to very low income families.
I do not know whether Jolly already had an idea about his life expectancy, but he invited me for dinner one night, just the two of us, and during that time, I had the strange feeling that he was already passing on to me a lot of his ideas, mostly about public housing and public transportation.
Perhaps he remembered that I was one of his ardent āstudentsā so to speak. I was so flattered when he told me that he wanted to talk to me because he wants to implement the ideas I have been writing about in my newspaper columns. Little did I know that he read my columns regularly, but he confirmed that himself.
Stunned by and honored by what he said, I told him that practically half of what I have been writing about came from him, which was not too far from the truth. To cut a long story short, I was welcomed by his senior staff during his wake, and they told me that Jolly had actually instructed them before he died, for me to do what he had told me to do.
As of now, there is already a Community Mortgage Program (CMP) under the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC). It has already built a lot of affordable public housing, but sad to say, the housing backlog is still counted by the millions. The national government is trying to finance the CMP as much as it could, but the money needed is just too much. It is for that reason that I am advocating the creation of a City Assisted Mortgage Program (CAMP) that would already be under the auspices of the Local Government Units (LGUs).
Hopefully, some LGUs will be able to finance CAMP from their surplus funds or loan windows, providing as well the vacant lots that they have foreclosed or repossessed. These housing units could be owned and operated by local cooperatives, an approach that has already worked in many places. (iseneres@yahoo.com/PN)
