Housing law misconceptions resulted in failure to resolve squatting–former senator

MANILA, Philippines – Former Senator Joey Lina on Thursday said misconceptions arising from the understanding of the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) resulted in the failure to resolve the proliferation of illegal settlers in the country.

In an interview after the first day of the 1st National Conference on the Urban Development and Housing Act, Lina, also the principal author of the law, said it had yet to be fully utilized 20 years after its implementation.

The multi-sectoral conference, a two-day seminar aimed at addressing the misconceptions, was organized by the Philippine Federation of Real Estate Service Professionals (PFRESPI) together with the Housing and Urban Development Coordination Council (HUDCC) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). Mayors, governors, landowners, developers, real estate practitioners, and other local government officials participated in the event.

Lina stressed that one of the misconceptions lay in some sectors’ belief that “a right to housing is a right to free housing,” saying that nowhere in the world was free housing provided by government for the homeless.

“Right to housing may be a right to lot only or house and lot, but never free,” he said.

Lina also emphasized that it was wrong for people to “construe consultation as consent,” and that illegal settlers’ possession or use of property for a long time did not translate to ownership.

“After all the parties have been heard in a consultation, it is still the government that decides finally,” he said.

Lina, however, stressed that if relocation and eviction was the last resort, the government must exhaust all alternatives to relocate the settlers near their job sites before moving them out.

“It would be more expensive for them to move outside because they would lose their jobs. When all the alternatives are exhausted, that’s the time you can move them out of the site,” Lina said.

Lina also said that landowners who were against the law misunderstood it, saying that landowners were not required to pay informal settlers “disturbance compensation” nor look for and pay for relocation of illegal settlers.

“Only the government has the responsibility to spend for the relocation,” he said.

Lina also urged local government units to exercise political will in helping the underprivileged, as he described relocation efforts as “very emotional tasks.”

More housing sites for illegal settlers, members of formal sector

Vice President Jejomar Binay, who served as a key speaker for President Benigno Aquino III, said the government was well on its way to its P10 billion housing program, saying that medium-rise in city housing units would be made for the 140,000 Filipino victims of homelessness.

Binay said that housing projects were also being constructed for members of the formal sector, citing the plan for the construction of 31,000 housing units for firefighters, and officers of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the improvement of the PAG-IBIG program for teachers.

Binay said that the conference was proof of the administration’s drive to push for the rights of every Filipino to a decent and safe housing.