Housing backlog to hit 11 million units sans funding

Jerry Acuzar —Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau

The country’s housing backlog may hit 11 million units by 2028 if the government fails to fund the Marcos administration’s ambitious program to build 1 million homes annually over the next six years, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) said on Friday.

At the Senate budget hearing, Urban Development Secretary Jerry Acuzar sought the senators’ help in restoring P36 billion in his department’s budget request for 2023 to provide interest payment subsidy for the DHSUD’s socialized housing program.

Fielding questions from Sen. Risa Hontiveros, Acuzar said the program, dubbed the “Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino,” needed the help of the private sector and the local governments as President Marcos had directed him to address the country’s perennial housing problem.

He lamented that of the proposed outlay of P96 billion for the DHSUD and other shelter agencies, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only set aside P3.9 billion for the housing sector in the National Expenditure Program for next year.

Slashed budget

This amount was almost a 50-percent drop from the shelter agencies’ current budget of P7.6 billion, he pointed out.

“When we talk about housing, what we need is money. That’s the major factor in [our planning] for housing,” said Acuzar, a real estate and construction magnate who founded the New San Jose Builders Inc.

“If we do business as usual, the 6.5 million housing need will balloon to almost 10.9 million by 2028. What we need is a new radical approach in dealing with this situation,” he said.

As approved by Mr. Marcos, he said the government would be rolling out an “enhanced business model that can address the two challenges of funding and production.”

The housing czar said this entailed public funding, including the allotment of P36 billion to act as “catalyst” in bankrolling the massive construction of residential units for poor Filipinos.

Hontiveros, who presided over the hearing, said it would be easier for senators to support the DHSUD’s funding request if it would resolve the negative audit findings of the Commission on Audit.

Among these was the questionable collection of P5 billion in fees that private developers had paid when controversial former Budget Undersecretary Lloyd Christopher Lao headed the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB).

Lao was a central figure in the allegedly irregular awarding of P8.7 billion worth of supply contracts for the government’s pandemic supply to Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., a startup company with a paid-up capital of only P625,000.

He was also implicated in the supposed irregularities in the purchase of laptops for public school teachers when he was still in charge of the Procurement Service of the DBM.

Hontiveros earlier claimed that Lao had spent P1.8 billion from the collected fees, which were allegedly kept in escrow accounts during his yearlong stint in the HLURB.

“The escrow accounts still contain about P450 million just from the condominium developers from Quezon City,” Hontiveros said.

“This is another anomaly because the interests earned by these escrow account … were within the reach of [Lao],” she said.

READ: DHSUD chief signs agreement with Bacolod LGU to build 10K housing units