President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed entrepreneur Jose “Jerry” Acuzar as the new head of the Department of Housing Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).
Acuzar is the brother-in-law of Paquito Ochoa, the executive secretary of the late former President Benigno Aquino III.
Acuzar’s appointment came after Marcos, during his first State of the Nation Address, directed the DHSUD to coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development to improve the implementation of the government’s Emergency Shelter Assistance Program for calamity victims.
The DHSUD is the primary government agency in charge of the management of housing, human settlement, and urban development.
Its attached agencies include the National Housing Authority, the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund), the Social Housing Finance Corporation, and the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation.
Acuzar is the chairman of the real estate company New San Jose Builders Inc. which worked on projects such as residential and commercial condominiums, as well as the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, the largest indoor arena in the world.
Hailing from Balanga, Bataan, he also owns the heritage town Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in the province’s Bagac town.
He is the department’s second secretary—succeeding Eduardo del Rosario—since its creation in 2019.