Central Luzon braces for housing tasks

IN A HALL full of mayors, Celerina Cruz, 72, could have lent a credible voice for why it was about time that local governments take direct and active roles in low-cost and socialized housing programs in their areas.

Cruz was quiet at the launch of the Central Luzon-leg of the Pabahay Caravan at Clark Freeport on Monday, her role limited to receiving the 19 titles for the home lots of 152 families belonging to the Samahang Magkakapitbahay ng Panghulo, Obando, Bulacan Phase 1.

She and her neighbors had waited 17 years for the government to give them the land titles even as they, through the help of the Angelo Abueg Foundation, had availed themselves of a P4.325-million loan under the national government’s Community Mortgage Program (CMP) as far back as 1994.

If she had her way, Cruz could have wanted to tell officials that dreaming to own a house and lot should not take too long because the wait, by itself, breeds uncertainty and diminishes dignity.

Long wait

“We have been longing to own a house and lot,” Cruz, a former beautician. says in Filipino.

The larger condition—a long-pestering housing backlog estimated at 3.6 million in 2005 and growing at an average of 250,000 yearly—needs more hands to solve the problem right and fast at where it is needed more, in communities, says Vice President Jejomar Binay, who led the caravan.

Binay, who also chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council
(HUDCC), says the participation of local governments in providing shelter is indispensable. “My only appeal is that we give the housing assistance to those who really need it,” he says.

Problem is, the Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act No. 7160) devolved only a few functions of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board to local governments.

The local and provincial boards process and approve subdivision plans for residential, commercial, industrial or other development purposes. The provincial board reviews and approves the comprehensive land use plans (CLUP) of component cities and towns.

Cities and towns with CLUPs issue locational clearance to locally significant projects.

Local housing board

On June 6, Congress began to expand the powers and responsibilities of local governments in easing homelessness. It approved on third and final reading House Bill No. 4505 that creates the Local Housing Board (LHB) in every city and town.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia says the bill provides an administrative body that complements the efforts of shelter agencies to effect the full implementation of RA 7279 or the Urban Development and Housing Act.

Felicisimo Lazarte Jr., head of the National Housing Authority (NHA) in northern and Central Luzon, says local governments have been involved in resettlement projects since the 1990s.

Often, however, local governments could not provide land to a partnership with the NHA that funds the construction of houses, he says. For every hectare, the agency can build 175 units at 40 square meters each. Worth P75,000 each, a house and lot can be paid in 25 years at P200 monthly.

Ma. Ana Oliveros, president of the Social Housing Finance Corp., says more than 23,000 families in Central Luzon availed themselves of housing last year through the CMP. At least 1,497 families are following suit this year and 14,010 others in the next five years.

But HUDCC data show those figures to be very modest. The housing backlog in Central Luzon was estimated at 461,368 from 2005 to 2010, putting it on third after Southern Luzon and Metro Manila.

For Binay, the work of local governments starts with having a CLUP because this delineates which areas are for residential and other uses.

Binay says Central Luzon, especially Bulacan and Pampanga, has eased homelessness by hosting six resettlements for families removed from out of the right-of-way of the NorthRail project. Bulacan also hosts soldiers’ and policemen’s villages in San Jose del Monte City, and Bocaue and San Miguel towns.

Another challenge, Binay says, is how to keep a balance between agriculture and housing in Central Luzon’s 2.1 million hectares, half of which are alienable and disposable (privately owned). “We should keep it that way by updating our CLUPs,” he says.