By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Reporter
THE government’s public housing program remains hampered by the high cost of land and lack of capacity by local government units, which may have led to the scaling back of the three million unit government housing target, analysts said.
Mark Cooper, senior director, Thought Leadership, at the Urban Land Institute Asia Pacific, said the Philippines has limited urban land, which is not sufficient to house its increasing population.
“There are very few countries in the region which have been able to successfully deliver public housing. Large developing nations such as the Philippines are challenged by the sheer size of their population,” Mr. Cooper said in an e-mail.
“The major challenge for housing everywhere, especially public housing, is the cost and availability of land.”
The government’s public housing program is known as the Expanded Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH). The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) recently abandoned its initial goal of building three million housing units by 2028.
Noel Toti M. Cariño, national president of the Chamber of Real Estate & Builders Association, Inc., said key challenges faced by the 4PH program include access to affordable and well-located lands, as well as funding, permits and titling.
Many local government units lack the technical capacity or resources to implement large-scale housing projects, he said via Viber.
Mr. Cariño also cited the need to streamline government regulations and improve funding flows to speed up implementation.
To increase private sector participation and better support beneficiaries, the expanded 4PH program included horizontal or subdivision-type housing.
It also included rental and incremental housing to suit the needs of beneficiaries. About 7,000 families are also expected to benefit from the revived community mortgage program under the Expanded 4PH framework.
However, the program won’t lead to significant benefits if housing remains commodified, according to Philippine Resource Center for Inclusive Development (Inklusibo), an organization supporting informal settlers.
“To fully transform the housing situation, we recommend that housing not be commodified by the government. Instead of facilitating the delivery of housing units, the government should fully reclaim its responsibility of providing housing to the public — investing, allocating more resources, and fully implementing it,” Inklusibo Executive Director Hans G. Bautista said in an e-mail.
“Furthermore, the government must ensure that its housing programs are participatory and appropriate to the needs and demands of the urban poor and the homeless.”
The organization also flagged President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s lack of direction to housing agencies during his recent State of the Nation Address.