President Benigno Aquino III (right) and Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Reacting to the statement of President Benigno Aquino III that Vice President Jejomar Binay did not do anything as former chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), the latter’s camp on Wednesday said the President himself previously credited the opposition leader for his accomplishments as housing czar.
“Media outfits, including the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 20 last year, quoted the President when he said VP Binay has done his duties as housing czar. ‘After doing his assignments, should I be castigating him? I don’t think that’s proper,’ President Aquino had said,” Binay spokesperson Rico Quicho said in a statement.
Quicho said that under Binay’s supervision, shelter agencies were able to provide house and lot packages to 792,014 families amounting to P268.826 billion.
“It was also during his term that Pag-IBIG became the biggest key shelter agency with assets reaching more than P376 billion. It is now one of the most profitable government corporations in the country with housing loan collection hitting P2.7 billion–all without increasing its monthly contribution, which remains at P100 since the 1980s. Such accomplishments are not easy to forget,” he added.
Aquino on Tuesday evening said he could not identify any accomplishment of the Vice President as former housing czar.
“Under my watch, I have yet to see anything that he (Binay) did as head of the housing sector,” Aquino said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel’s Tina Monzon-Palma.
Binay relinquished his post as HUDCC chairman and presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers’ affairs when he resigned from the Aquino Cabinet and declared himself as opposition leader in June.
READ: Binay quits Aquino Cabinet
‘Labored against all odds’
But Quicho maintained that housing agencies under Binay “labored against all odds” despite damages caused by natural disasters and alleged lack of budgetary support.
“Allocations for housing were given for programs of the Office of President and the Department of Interior and Local Government. The DILG, formerly headed by the LP standard bearer Mar Roxas, neither has the mandate or the technical competence to undertake housing programs yet it benefited from the generosity of the DBM, headed by another party mate Secretary Butch Abad,” he stressed.
READ: Binay accuses Aquino of giving Roxas’ DILG undue funding | Roxas to Binay: Look into data over undue DILG funding accusation
Quicho said Binay, should he be elected president next year, will make sure that the budget for housing agencies will increase to provide more affordable homes to Filipino families.
“The housing sector, under the stewardship of the Vice President, provided direct housing assistance to more than half a million low-income and informal settlers families. However, there remains much room for improvement in terms of uplifting the lives of the people, something which is beyond the Vice President’s mandate as shelter head,” Quicho said.
“After five years as housing czar, VP Binay remained true to his vision of providing dignified housing, giving people the means not only to live decently, but likewise a fair chance of building productive lives,” he added. Yuji Vincent Gonzales/JE