The House of Representatives has adopted a resolution creating a congressional oversight committee on socialized and low-cost housing loan restructuring and condonation.
This developed as Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo B. Benitez, chairman of the House committee on housing and urban development, said the oversight committee provided under House Joint Resolution 31 is tasked to review the implementation of Republic Act No. 9507, otherwise known as the “Socialized and Low-Cost Housing Loan Restructuring and Condonation Act of 2008.”
Benitez said RA 9507 authorized the governing boards of the government financing institutions, such as the Home Development and Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund), Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC), Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), Home Guaranty Corporation, and National Housing Authority (NHA), to continue their loan restructuring and condonation programs beyond the 18-month mandatory period of implementation from its effectivity.
“Six years since the enactment of Republic Act 9507 and these government financing institutions have yet to submit to the House of Representatives Committee on Housing and Urban Development and the Senate Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement an annual report on the loan restructuring and condonation program,” Benitez said.
Benitez stressed the need to constitute a congressional oversight committee on socialized and low-cost housing loan restructuring and condonation to review the implementation of RA 9507.
“The oversight committee will monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Socialized and Low-Cost Housing Loan Restructuring and Condonation Program to determine whether it is carried out in accordance with the law,” Benitez said.
The oversight committee shall evaluate the administration of the program to ensure that it is strengthened, executive waste is eliminated, and its goals achieved through efficient and effective program management and service delivery.
The resolution also requires the committee to monitor the delivery of government services through the implementation of the program and appraise whether the needs and interests of the beneficiaries of the program are adequately served and, if not, to determine the necessary remedial action.
RA 9507 was signed into law to institute a rational loan restructuring and condonation program that takes into consideration the credit worthiness and credit discipline of the borrowers and the financial viability of the lending institutions consistent with the policy of the State to undertake a continuing program of urban land reform and housing that makes available at affordable cost decent housing to underprivileged and homeless citizens.
RA 9507 declared an 18-month mandatory coverage for housing loan restructuring and condonation, upon the effectivity of the implementing rules and regulations, of all socialized and low-cost housing loan accounts which have at least three months of unpaid monthly amortization that are in any of the government financing institutions.