With the administration’s clear housing roadmap, the National Housing Authority (NHA) was able to build thousands of housing units that benefited state workers as well as low-income families, the head of the housing agency said Thursday.
“Mr. President, we are very proud to report to you that there are only two administrations across the seven presidents. Number one, during the time of Marcos and your administration that had a very clear roadmap for housing,” NHA General Manager Marcelino Escalada Jr. said in a report to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
The NHA, being the production arm of the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD), built 336,493 housing units from 2016 to 2021, according to Escalada.
This is in addition to the 129,893 units constructed by the agency. All the housing units were disposed, awarded, and occupied, the NHA chief said.
He also reported that NHA has completed 894,000 projects and was able to collect P13.6 billion through the agency’s monthly collections from all the awarded and occupied housing units and also from leasable lots under the Commercial Industrial Estates of the NHA.
At the same time, he said that the NHA has already completed 8,419 units for the members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP). The construction of 12,289 shelters is also ongoing.
NHA hopes to finish all the housing projects by June of 2022, before the end of the Presidehousingnt’s term.
The NHA also signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to expand its housing program for the country’s overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), whose dream is at least to have their own houses.
NHA’s next project is the resettlement for informal settlers families (ISFs) affected by the Supreme Court Mandamus to clean up the Manila Bay, Escalada said.
This involved seven provinces along the Manila Bay: Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, Tarlac, Pampanga, and Bataan, all of which have major river basins and tributaries going to the Manila Bay.
The NHA has already built 13,423 housing units, while there are 7,526 undergoing construction.
“So for the Region IV and Region III — Cavite, Rizal, Laguna — we have 10,000 already completed; 5,437 ongoing. For Region III, comprising of Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac, and Bulacan, we have 2,641 completed,” Escalada reported.
The NHA chief also mentioned the resettlement assistance to the local government units (LGUs). Upon the President’s directive, the NHA has increased its assistance to LGUs, doubling the P12-million grant for 5th and 6th class cities and municipalities.
The housing agency now extends P25-million grant to all LGUs having housing problems. For first to 4th class municipality and cities and provinces, from P24 million, the NHA now provides P50-million grant.
To date, NHA has completed 16,755 units for the LGUs, while 183 projects are being finalized, Escalada said.
To support the Local Task Forces to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) and the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP) of the Office of the National Defense, NHA has carried out an aggressive campaign to provide shelter to indigenous peoples (IPs).
“We will concentrate our IP housing because this is the most vulnerable sector for the recruitment of the CPP-NPA. So most of our IP housing right now is a back-to-back program of E-CLIP and ELCAC,” Escalada said.
So far, the NHA has completed 5,328 units for the IPs, with around 118 projects implemented by the current administration alone.
He pointed out that 65 percent of all the IP housing projects were implemented by the administration. PND
