Solon files House bill to boost Balik Probinsya program

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker filed on Thursday a House bill complementing Executive Order 114 signed by President Rodrigo Duterte institutionalizing the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pagasa Program, which aims to decongest Metro Manila and promote regional development by sending the urban poor in the metropolis back to their home provinces.

In a statement, Bohol 3rd District Rep. Alexie Besas Tutor said she had filed House Bill 6674 to “directly respond to the urgent need for a Balik Probinsya program for the urban poor, especially those in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao.”

“HB 6674 goes into the details of methodically identifying beneficiaries by the Philippine Statistics Authority, registering the urban poor for basic government services, and laying out the broad strokes of creating the public housing communities for the beneficiaries,” she said.

“This bill draws lessons from the first National Migration Survey done in 2018 and the results of which were released last January. This bill is also follow-up legislation to the charter of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development,” she added.

She said the executive order will also boost the chances of the bill to becoming a law as soon as possible.

According to Tutor, the bill addresses the main reasons for the rural-to-urban migration that has “spawned thousands of informal settler neighborhoods and more so in the country’s three main metropolises.”

“The bill lays down the mandate to have ready employment for the beneficiaries, public housing, and the essential components of a functioning, thriving community. Jobs, education, electricity, water, and health services are mandated,” she also said.

For the economic sustainability of the public housing communities, the bill also includes mandates for ecozones and tourism enterprise zones as components of the commercial areas of the communities, according to the lawmaker.

The Balik Probinsya program is a “medium-term solution” to the urban congestion and population density of Manila, Cebu, and Davao, she noted.

She said she is hoping that by 2022, the first Balik Probinsya public housing communities would have its first batches of residents settled in.

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