Leni seeks private help for housing

Vice President Leni Robredo.    INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

THE GOVERNMENT has to address a 1.4-million housing backlog in the next six years, Vice President Leni Robredo said Tuesday as she pushed for collaboration with the private sector to address the pressing social problem.

Robredo, tapped by President Duterte to head the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), told the BusinessWorld Economic Forum there was a need to care for the marginalized sector even as they have no “direct impact” on their bottom lines.

She underscored the need to build homes for families and schools for children because “research has shown that building nations where everyone can live and thrive and enjoy the benefits of economic growth is the best way to create even more growth.”

“We want to address the 1.4-million housing backlog within our term. We will disrupt and innovate. We will enjoin the private sector to be our partners in providing not just houses, but decent and affordable communities where our people will find jobs, where their children can safely go to school, attend church, run around and play safely,” Robredo said.

However, she said she would not be asking for “charity” and instead pushed for closer “collaboration and consultation.”

She said there were “commercially viable” resettlement investments.

Phinma Properties partnered with the QC government, Pag-ibig Fund and several NGOs for a project that allowed informal settlers to shell out just a little over P2,000 as monthly amortization for “decent 26-square meter homes with loft provisions that have proper sewerage and drainage, and security of tenure,” she said.

It was a far cry from the P1,550 to P3,500 a month for a 10-sqm space with no proper sewerage and drainage system, she said.

Robredo stressed corporations must need to strike a balance between their business needs and the public good. “This is just one example of addressing the ‘1 percent problem’ that perpetuates the current instability of our nation’s social order where the poor continue to be poor and get left behind. I am positive you can think of more ways,” Robredo said.