Robredo-Pangilinan tandem vows P50-billion yearly housing fund for urban poor

Vice President Leni Robredo and Sen. Francis Pangilinan (not in photo) have signed a covenant providing for a P50-billion yearly socialized housing fund with the LENI Urban Poor Council, a coalition of various groups. (Photo from VP Leni Robredo’s Facebook account)

MANILA, Philippines — If elected, presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo and her running mate, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, would push for a yearly P50-billion fund for socialized housing projects.

The aspirants made the promise in a covenant they signed on Monday with the Leni Urban Poor Coalition, composed of various groups that pledged support for their tandem in the May 2022 elections.

“We will set aside P50 billion every year in six years [their term of office] so that we could implement the project for socialized housing and to ensure the relevant basic services, including basic services at the resettlement sites,” the covenant says in Filipino.

Robredo used to chair the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. 

The P50-billion yearly funding would only address immediate needs, the two officials pointed out, saying. “The funds needed for the housing of  1.8 million informal settler families is P225 billion a year for six years.”

“But the P50 billion every year for six years will provide for the immediate needs and ready projects,” the added.

Meanwhile, Robredo and Pangilinan committed to ensuring that funds for socialized housing projects would be properly used and free of corruption.

Further, they vowed to remove red tape in the implementation of the projects.

The tandem also wants to alleviate the burden faced by urban poor families transferred to far resettlement sites.

“They suffer because of the lack of services like water and electricity, street drainage, schools, and health services,” they said.

These families, they added, would still be affected by calamities, aggravated by the effects of climate change.

“To alleviate this suffering, we will make the NHA [National Housing Authority] resettlement sites free so that they could give them a chance to focus on earning a living,” they added.

Further, the pair said they would prioritize in-city housing projects.

They would also seek to suspend demolition and evictions while housing projects in resettlement sites are still not ready.

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