Sen. Cynthia Villar
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Cynthia Villar on Tuesday questioned the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development’s (DHSUD) plan to establish medium-rise condominium units.
“Why are you prioritizing the 3.2 million housing [units] for the middle class when your mandate is to help the poor and the homeless?” Villar asked during the Senate’s deliberations on the DHSUD’s proposed budget for 2025.
At the end of Villar’s questioning was Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who was speaking on behalf of the DHSUD as the agency’s budget sponsor.
Villar, whose family is known for acquiring lands to develop into residential or commercial venues, said the problem is evident in Las Piñas City, where the condominiums proposed by the DHSUD are not suitable for the “poor and the homeless.”
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“It’s for the middle class. So why are we providing houses for the middle class? They can buy from others because they can afford it. Our priority should be the poor and the homeless kasi sa amin sa Las Piñas, maraming poor and homeless na informal settlers (because in Las Piñas, there are my poor and homeless informal settlers), that should be the priority — how to give them houses,” she said.
“They are prioritizing condominiums. A condominium unit is expensive, it’s for the middle class. It’s not for the poor. Tapos paalisin nila sa doon sa lupa ang poor [at] lalagyan nila ng condominium. Saan nila dadalhin yung poor? (And then they will eject the poor from the property and they will construct a condominium. Where will the poor transfer?)” she asked.
Hontiveros, DHSUD tell Villar: Condo is also for the poor
Hontiveros explained that the DHSUD was trying to address the issues by providing quality houses for the poor with the use of government funds.
“The DHSUD said the condominium is also for the poor as long as there is an interest subsidy, so the department tried to innovate with the program,” she said in Filipino.
Villar said the DHSUD’s medium-rise condominium unit costs P4,000 a month, but Hontiveros debunked her claims.
“What I’m hearing here is it is P2,600 a month, not P4,000,” Hontiveros said.
This, however, did not sit well with Villar, who then said that the poor cannot afford to pay for a condominium unit that costs P2,600 when they are only earning P500 a day.
Hontiveros then explained that the DHSUD is currently studying proposed government subsidies that may be available to lessen amortization costs.
“The proposed amortization subsidy in partnership with the local government units is P1,500 per month,” she said in Filipino.
Villar still appealed to the DHSUD to reconsider its plan to build medium-rise condominium units.
She also accused the DHSUD of benefiting from the contractors of the condominium which is why the agency wants to build condominiums.
Later in the hearing, Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel moved for the deferral of the deliberations on DHSUD’s 2025 funding as well as the budgetary support to government corporations under DHSUD which are the following:
- National Housing Authority
- Social Housing Finance Corporation
- National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation
“The grounds would be [that] the interpellation of this agency’s budget is holding up the consideration of the other scheduled agencies today because we still have a long list of questions to ask,” Pimentel explained.