Senators dismayed over ‘pitiful’ housing budget, but P9.6B for intelligence

HUGE BACKLOG Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon questioned why the 2021 National Expenditure Programonly sought P4 billion for the newly established Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development despite the government’s massive backlog in housing. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Several senators on Wednesday expressed dismay over the “pitiful” allocation for government housing in the proposed national budget for 2021, with no funds allotted for survivors of calamities, but with P9.6 billion earmarked for intelligence and confidential funds.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon questioned why the 2021 National Expenditure Program (NEP) only sought P4 billion for the newly established Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) despite the government’s massive backlog in housing.

Drilon cited data that showed the housing backlog at 6.5 million, which could balloon to 12 million by 2030, or 22 million by 2040 if not managed.

No logic

“With that huge backlog, I do not see the logic why we need more confidential and intelligence funds than budget to give our people decent and safe homes,” he said.

His colleagues echoed his call for a bigger budget for the settlement department, which would get a measly 0.08-percent share of the proposed P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021, or about 0.02 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The largest slice of the new department’s budget for 2021 is the P2.7 billion for the relocation of families living on the rim of Manila Bay and on the banks of its tributaries, in compliance with a Supreme Court directive.

No additional funds are set aside to provide housing for the survivors of Taal Volcano eruption in Batangas province earlier this year, of the Marawi siege in Mindanao in 2017, and of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) in Eastern Visayas in 2013, according to the department’s records.

“I am making this statement preliminarily to show the priorities that we are confronted with. There is a consensus, at least among senators attending this hearing, that the housing sector needs assistance because of the very meager budget that is being assigned to you,” Drilon said.

Sen. Francis Tolentino lamented how little funds were being earmarked for the provision of housing to poor Filipinos amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“It has been stressed over and over that the first line of defense against COVID-19 is your house. How can you shelter in place during a lockdown if you don’t have a house of your own?” he said.

Tolentino noted how the funding for housing projects remained spread out across various departments, which, he said, defeated the purpose of establishing the settlement department as a separate housing agency.

Police, military housing

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto called out the National Housing Authority (NHA), now overseen by the new department, over its continuing program to provide low-cost housing to police and military personnel.

“I think the mandate of the NHA should be [to provide socialized housing] for informal settlers. Those who are not salaried, that’s how it should work,” Recto said.

Mylene Rivera, the settlement agency’s director for planning, told the senators that the department would be given a total budget of only about P3.97 billion, or only 5.2 percent of the 2021 funding it originally proposed.

“We emphasize that while shelter is the third most basic [human] need, our budget is the lowest among all the departments,” Rivera said.

But the senators chided officials of the new housing agency for their failure to answer “basic questions” that the lawmakers said would have motivated them to push for an increase in the department’s proposed budget.

“No wonder our housing sector is in a mess,” Drilon said as Settlement Secretary Eduardo del Rosario faced delays appearing online due to what he called “technical difficulties.”

Drilon cited how the 2021 NEP allocated only P4 billion for the housing department, while it earmarked P19.3 billion for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which had been flagged as a lump sum in the budget.

“The disparity is glaring and it saddens us that the 2021 budget does not address the needs of hundreds of poor Filipino families who live along esteros in Metro Manila and various parts of the country, putting their lives at risk particularly during this rainy season,” he said.

Displaced by Taal eruption

Sen. Nancy Binay scored the lack of funding in the 2021 budget for the relocation of people displaced by the eruption of Taal in Batangas in January, and the new department’s failure to extend aid to them.

The agency’s officials said the NHA had relocated 600 of the 2,600 families displaced by the eruption but only through its corporate funds. The Department of Budget and Management had yet to release the P1-billion fund for the Emergency Housing Assistance Program for 2020.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who presided over the briefing, urged the settlement officials to develop programs for low-cost but decent rental housing for the poor and marginalized.

“The housing backlog should no longer increase. We trust that the DHSUD as a newly created agency would be more innovative and creative in providing affordable and decent housing for Filipinos who have lost their homes and livelihood, and could not afford to have a shelter of their own at this time,” she said.