Housing plan pushed with 100-year leases
TIME CAPSULE | President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Palayan City Mayor Nicole Cuevas seal the time capsule for a housing project along with Speaker Martin Romualdez (left). (Photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed on Wednesday to deliver on his promise to provide a million affordable houses annually for indigent families under the government’s public housing program.
He gave the assurance at the groundbreaking ceremony for the 11-hectare Palayan City Township Housing Project in Nueva Ecija.
Under the three-phase project, 5,100 housing units will be built, along with support infrastructure, such as an elementary school, livelihood center, administrative offices, a central park, basketball court, a mini market and hawker area, aquaponics area, sewage treatment plant and materials recovery facility.
“I’m glad that we are continuing. This is not the first groundbreaking that I have attended. I hope… I know it will not be the last, and that we will continue to break ground in different parts around the country for our dream of one million homes a year,” Marcos said.
According to him, the one million low-cost housing units annually will greatly help in addressing the country’s housing problem, adding that the government’s goal was to provide shelter not only to indigent families but also to employees struggling to own a decent house.
Ambitious target
On the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last month, Marcos had told business leaders that the Philippines has taken on “a very aggressive housing program.”
“We are aiming for one million homes, one million low-cost and socialized homes a year. It is an ambitious number but we will try very, very hard,” he said. In support of the government’s housing initiatives, several agencies, with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in the lead, are collaborating on a housing program that will be launched next year.
The Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino program aims to benefit at least six million families nationwide, with lease rights extending up to 100 years.
GSIS President and General Manager Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso said in a statement that the state pension fund was working on the project in cooperation with the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund), Social Security System, Land Bank of the Philippines, and Development Bank of the Philippines.
A memorandum of understanding signed among these agencies on Wednesday provided modes by which participating government financial institutes may support the government’s housing initiatives.
Veloso said that under the Pabahay program, the award of the housing units would be in the form of lease rights for a maximum of 100 years, giving awardees the right to use and enjoy the housing unit as a residence by paying only the monthly rental.
Also, the sale of rights would be granted only to first-time homebuyers, Pag-Ibig Fund members, and minimum wage earners.
“We are firming up the structure and will have it approved by the GSIS Board in January next year,” Veloso said.
