Gov’t plans medium-rise residential buildings for Metro Manila squatters

MANILA, Philippines—President Aquino has instructed Vice President Jejomar Binay, also the government’s housing czar, to draw up a plan to build at least 1,750 medium-rise residential buildings (MRBs) intended for squatters in the National Capital Region.

“Right now, the plan is only MRBs for squatter families in the NCR,” Joey Salgado, Binay’s media officer, told the Inquirer.

Salgado also disclosed that “the priority of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, which Vice President Binay also heads, are the 105,000 squatter families living in danger areas in the metropolis.”

“HUDCC’s target is 20,000 families per year for the next five years,” said Salgado.

According to Salgado, “about 1,750 MRBs are needed for the housing program.”

“Based on National Housing Authority standards, each MRB will be five stories high with 60 units per MRB … The standard cost per MRB, inclusive of land development, is about P34.5 million (which puts the total project cost at P60.4 billion),” Salgado said.

In a statement, Binay said they were “finalizing the project that can provide medium-rise buildings to informal settlers by the hundreds of thousands.”

“We are now discussing the methodology. We hope to launch this by next year, if not by the end of 2011,” he added.

Aside from the NHA, HUDCC also groups the following shelter agencies: Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund), Socialized Housing Finance Corp., National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., Home and Land Use Regulatory Board, and Home Guaranty Corp.

Meanwhile, the Vice President is pushing for the implementation of a separate housing program for some 1.3 million government employees nationwide.

“Many government employees still have no homes that they can call their own. The least we could do is help them acquire decent and affordable homes,” he said during the recent groundbreaking rites for the 125-unit Phividec Industrial Authority employees’ housing project in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.

Earlier in a letter to Aquino, Binay noted that “while the government has been providing housing opportunities for informal settlers and poor dwellers, many of our government personnel are still homeless.”

“There are about 1.3 million government employees who, under existing laws, should be Government Service Insurance System and Pag-IBIG Fund members and are eligible to avail of housing loans,” he said.

However, “only a small percentage of government employees have availed of the said loans because the existing housing options, especially those in Metro Manila, are not affordable. Also, low income state employees find it difficult to access and comply with the requirements needed,” Binay pointed out.

According to Binay, “this housing program would strengthen HUDCC’s existing mandates to provide for institutional or government employees’ housing. This is aligned with HUDCC’s new thrust to assist and guide government agencies and local government units in the conceptualization and implementation of housing projects for their employees and is consistent with our mandate to provide housing for the homeless.”

HUDCC plans to utilize “idle and underutilized” government lands as possible housing sites for state employees.

“Utilizing idle government properties for housing would make it easier for government agencies to provide housing for their employees and other qualified beneficiaries,” Binay said.

The government had earlier named several government-owned lands as housing sites for specific groups of state employees, like the Armed Forces Off-Base Housing Project, Department of Science and Technology-Industrial Technology Development Institute Housing, and the New Bilibid Prison Reservation.

However, HUDCC has yet to develop these declared housing sites.