Two of the most important promises made by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the course of the 2022 presidential campaign related to two most basic needs of Filipinos, namely, food and shelter. Candidate BBM said that if elected, he would see to it that the price of rice would be brought down to P20 per kilogram and that 1,000,000 low-cost houses would be built in every year of his term. Regretfully, both promises have yet to be fulfilled.
President BBM’s administration has in the past 31 months used all the tools at its disposal – including reducing the tariff on rice from 35 percent to 15 percent, unloading the National Food Authority (NFA) rice stock on Kadiwa stores and the local government units (LGUs) and setting a suggested minimum rice price (SMRP)—to bring down prices of the nation’s staple food, but to insufficient effect. Rice prices have tenaciously stayed in the P35.55 per kilo range. A stable trend toward P20 per kilo is nowhere in sight.
The size of the housing backlog in this —repeatedly said to be 6 million units but arguably much higher than that – was sufficient reason for candidate BBM to make the backlog’s eradication a major campaign promise. A dismayingly high number of Filipino families continue to live as informal settlers—the new politically correct term for squatters—in substandard shelter facilities. Some of the worst informal-settler communities are found in National Capital Region (NCR) cities, often in the shadows of gleaning high-rise buildings. The situation in provincial localities usually is even worse.
What has been the Marcos administration’s achievement record in the domain of low-cost housing? I am not in possession of official data, but based on the construction industry and financial sector information that I track, I would guess that a total of at most 300,000 low-cost housing units have been constructed in this country in each of the last three years. Needless to say, that is a far cry from one million low-cost housing units per year.
Without condoning its low-cost housing performance, it bears pointing out that the Marcos II administration is not the only non-performer in this area of the economy. The fact is that administration after administration has not come within striking distance of the target it set for construction of low-cost housing units. The last administration and the ones before that all set targets and then failed to meet them.
What is the problem here?
The basic explanation is that a serious low-cost housing program has not been considered a top priority of successive administrations.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) declares in its National Development Plan—the current edition is NDP, 2023-2028—that it recognizes the importance of a robust low-cost housing program, proceeds to set down a physical target and then fails to keep a close watch on the progress of the target, leaving attainment thereof to the directly concerned government agencies, the LGUs and the private sector. That’s a formula for non-attainment.
The performance deficit is not due to lack of an organizational structure and resources. The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development – of which the National Housing Corp. (NHC) is a component—is there the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) likewise are there. And for financing there are the DHSUD lending entities and Landbank.
All the ingredients for a credible government low-cost housing program are in place. The missing ingredient is seriousness – yes, seriousness—on the part of the government.
Years ago in the US, there was a real estate developer name called Gordon Levitt. His company concentrated on low-cost housing and profitably built what he called Levittowns all over the US. We need a Gordon Levitt in this country at this time.
A final word. The Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) has been looking at glamorous industries in which to invest its funds. Why not seek out a company that has a record of success in mass housing and acquire a stake in it?
(llagasjessa@yahoo.com)