Sotto vows to be fair in picking housing beneficiaries

Pasig City has unveiled its proposed design for socialized housing in the city, a major initiative that will prioritize residents currently living in danger zones like disaster-prone Manggahan Floodway.

Mayor Vico Sotto released the designs on his social media pages, accompanied by a vow that any new housing in Pasig would be distributed through a just system—a veiled dig at his predecessor, Robert Eusebio, who had been accused of using the project as a tool to reward allies.

“There will be no political patronage in choosing beneficiaries,” Sotto said.

The mayor did not give a date for the completion of the housing sites but detailed the rationale behind the designs, which he said were meant to provide housing that was safe and dignified and where residents would have the opportunity to elevate their economic status.

“I never promised that everyone in the city would receive housing—that’s not possible right now,” Sotto said. “What I did promise was that there would be no relocation or demolitions until a suitable alternative is available.”

As a candidate, he told the Inquirer that housing would be one of his administration’s top priorities, along with health and education. He had lamented the violent demolitions that occurred in the city the year before he ran for mayor.

“Housing in the city is about politics and patronage,” Sotto had said then. “In other relocation programs, residents are thrown to Laguna, Rizal and other faraway places.”

Often these provincial housing sites were isolated and far from any sources of livelihood, hospitals and schools, which Sotto called an “inhuman” way to treat informal settler communities in Pasig.