Summit launched to tackle housing backlog, informal settlers

TO address the over 500 million housing unit backlog and the  2.2 million informal settlers in the Philippines, a National Housing Summit was launched in Valenzuela on Wednesday.

The housing summit aims to convene all stakeholders in the housing sector to tackle the mushrooming informal settlers in the country, especially in Metro Manila.

The summit was led by Senator Jose Victor “JV” Ejercito, chairman of the Senate Committee on Urban Planning, Housing, and Resettlement, and Representative Albee Benitez, Chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development.

Benitez said the summit would discuss among stakeholders solutions to significantly reduce the number of informal settlers in the country.

He added that the summit would also tackle ways to make housing affordable for all.

“In spite of the numerous programs implemented by key shelter agencies, we cannot seem to significantly lower the number of homeless Filipinos and make housing affordable to all,” he said.

The lawmaker said the summit would look into an on-site and in-city settlements.

“We do not believe that the first option should be relocation. The informal settlers are in Metro Manila because this is where their source of income is,” he said.

“They will just come back  here[, for] their jobs are here,” he said.

He said the informal settlers should be” heavily involved in the process.”

“The summit will work on real life cases or prototypes within the NCR to ensure that the proposed measures and programs are viable enough on a national scale,” he said.

Ejercito, meanwhile, said he wanted the summit to come up with a “comprehensive masterplan,” which would serve as a consolidated output to address the growing population and housing unit backlog in the country.

To achieve this masterplan, Ejercito urged stakeholders from various sectors to share their “technical expertise” on the housing problem in the country and how to address this.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, chairman Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), said during the event that the housing problem in the country is a “national issue.”

Binay cited the rural-urban migration of Filipinos, which means that more people from the province are coming to Metro Manila.

He said the issue on informal settlers has been decades-long problem in the country.

“Ito ay isang malalang problema na noon pa dapat inihanap na ng kalutasan,” he said in his speech.

He said if no development were seen in the provinces, urban migration would continue.

He said almost 50 percent of the Philippine population lives in the city.

According to him, the housing summit, which would run for about 10 months is timely to create “policy framework” to address housing problems.

He urged public officials, government agencies and civil society groups to unite  and set aside their personal interests for the success of the summit.

“Instead of criticizing each other and spreading lies, government officials and civil society organizations can look into point of cooperation and be partners,” he said.

He assured the cooperation of the HUDCC and other government agencies concerned in the housing sector to achieve the goals of the summit. AC