The government is committed to develop resilient and sustainable communities, according to the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).
At a meeting of the heads of key shelter agencies (KSAs) at the department’s central office on Monday, Human Settlements Secretary Eduardo del Rosario vowed there would be no “substandard housing units and projects” during the Duterte administration.
Reiterating the need to further create synergy among KSAs for a more vibrant housing sector, he declared three housing guiding principles.
“First, let us not lose sight of our general housing guiding principles by always considering shelter as a right of every Filipino family, homeownership as an option, and it is the responsibility of housing officials to help and assist the poorest of the poor, so that they will have the capability and opportunity to have decent and affordable houses,” del Rosario was quoted as saying in a statement.
Second, he told KSAs to remember that they were building communities, not just houses; and third, “we will never build substandard houses and projects, and never in this administration that we will be accused of building substandard housing units or projects.”
We must do these three things “to ensure that the next administration will also continue to observe these housing principles,” the Human Settlements chief said.
Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) Chief Executive Officer Acmad Rizaldy Moti, National Housing Authority General Manager Jun Escalada and Human Settlements Adjudication Commission Executive Commissioner Melzar Galicia attended the meeting.
Social Housing Finance Corp. President Arnolfo Cabling and National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. chief Felixberto Bustos participated via videoconference.
Ways to better promote convergence among KSAs were also tackled also at the meeting, with del Rosario urging the agency heads to improve the synchronization of their efforts in addressing housing-related concerns.
Besides the much-improved housing design standards being imposed by his department, provisions for basic utilities, like power and water, in all government housing projects have been a primordial consideration of the DHSUD. Also, locations of resettlement areas are carefully studied to ensure safety from floods, landslides, and other hazards and calamities.
The KSA heads’ meeting was the second this year. The Pag-IBIG Fund will host the next meeting, which shall be done quarterly starting next year.