Senators to restore housing budget

Franklin Drilon

Senators on Tuesday moved to reinstate the housing sector budget for next year to the current level of P15.3 billion, proposing the realignment of “excess fats” and unproductive items in the 2018 national budget to address the massive housing backlog in the country.

Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said slashing the budgets of six key housing agencies by 70 percent to a mere P4.5 billion was a “criminal neglect” amid a P1.2-million housing backlog.

The amount is the combined allocation for the National Housing Authority (NHA), the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, and the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, Social Housing Finance Corp., Housing and Community Development, and the National Home Mortgage and Finance.

“Our housing agencies said the housing backlog will reach P6 million by 2022. With that kind of a backlog, why are we not providing enough resources for the housing sector?” said Drilon at Monday’s plenary deliberation of the housing sector’s budget.

He pointed out that the additional budget for the housing sector could be sourced from the “unproductive items” in the 2018 national budget such as P3.7 billion in intelligence funds spread across various agencies and departments.

“Intelligence gathering is important but do we need a very big amount for that? Intel funds is the nonproductive aspect of our budget, it has no multiplier effect,” Drilon said.

Sen. JV Ejercito, vice chair of the finance committee, said Drilon’s proposal was a welcome development, pointing out that the NHA’s P2.3-billion budget for next year could only build 2,000 houses.

“At that rate, we won’t be able to address the backlog. It would also create more social problems since many Filipinos don’t own a home,” Ejercito told reporters in an interview.

Ejercito, who also chairs the Senate committee on urban planning, housing and resettlement, said he agreed with Drilon’s proposal that the housing sector’s allocation for next year be made the same with what the sector received for 2017.

“We’ll talk about it with the chair of finance, on how we can reduce ‘fats’ in other agencies and other departments so we can at least add a few billions for housing,” he said.

The senator also proposed on the floor a special provision that would give the NHA elbow room of three years to fully utilize its funds.

“I believe this would be more fair and practical for the NHA since the process in constructing housing units usually takes too long. This bureaucratic process is the reason why NHA’s funds cannot be disbursed within one year,” he said.