HOUSE Deputy Minority Leader Antonio Tinio has censured the government’s flagship housing program as an “utter failure,” saying it produced only 24 housing units out of a targeted 75,000 with a budget amounting to P750 million.
Tinio, nominee of ACT Teachers party-list group and a Makabayan bloc member, expressed disbelief at the program’s dismal performance.
The 4PH (Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino) program was initially meant to build one million housing units annually over six years to address the country’s six million unit housing backlog.
“I can say, this is an utter failure,” Tinio declared, criticizing the government’s continued reliance on private sector participation to provide decent homes for poor Filipinos.
Tinio underscored the fundamental flaw in the privatized housing model. “To rely on the private sector, private developers to produce housing, millions of units for the poor, the poorest of the poor who are homeless would not do. This will not work, the government must directly build the houses.”
Tinio adverted to the stark disparity in government spending priorities, noting that only P2 billion was allocated for the National Housing Authority compared to over P250 billion for flood control.
The lawmaker called for abandoning the privatized model entirely.
“It is not just a matter of increasing the budget if the privatized model of housing provision should not be scrapped because otherwise… the housing backlog will grow from man to man. The poor Filipinos still don’t have a home,” said Tinio.
He urged the government to shift to direct housing production and rental models which would be shunned by private developers for being unprofitable.
