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Friday, March 29, 2024

NHA hit for keeping P11 billion housing fund idle

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The National Housing Authority has failed to build  P11.6 billion worth of houses as of 2016, Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas said.

Brosas said the failure of the agency to use the funds meant to build houses for low-income families has exacerbated the squatter problem in Metro Manila and in other population centers.

“Aside from the controversy over its substandard Yolanda housing units, the National Housing Authority is keeping P11.6 billion idle in its bank account despite the massive housing backlog in the country,” said Brosas, a member of the Makabayan Bloc in Congress.

Brosas cited a recent report from the Commission on Audit which showed the shelter agency’s idle funds almost doubled from P6.68 billion in 2016 to P11.6 billion as of end of 2017, or a 73.7-percent increase. 

“The NHA is creating conditions for its defunding and for the full corporatization of mass housing by keeping P11.6 billion, which are mostly from people’s taxes, idle in its bank account,” she said.

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Citing the COA report, Brosas said on top of the P19.56-billion subsidy from the national government, the NHA collected P10.23 billion in 2017 from awardees and beneficiaries, which are mostly poor families, mainly in the form of amortization. 

Around P14.24 billion, which constitute the bulk of its expenditures, went to shady contractors during the same year, said Brosas, citing the COA report.

“It’s no wonder that in the proposed 2019 national budget, the NHA’s budget was slashed by P2.9 billion to a mere P360 million, with technically not a single centavo for the construction of mass housing units,” Brosas said. 

“The COA report confirms that the NHA can still operate even if beneficiaries will stop paying amortization given the huge funds under its sleeve,” she added.

For his part, Deputy Minority Leader and Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza hit government agencies that failed to spend their respective budgets on programs that would have helped alleviate the plight of millions of Filipinos, especially on housing.

Atienza said decent housing is a basic human right guaranteed by the Constitution and should thus be the priority of our government. 

“We see thousands of homeless families living in danger areas such as coastal areas, riverbanks, and esteros, as well as those staying on the sidewalks and parks all over Metro Manila. These genuinely poorest of the poor are all dependent on the government to provide them with decent housing. We cannot expect them to apply for housing loans,” he added.

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