THE National Housing Authority has confirmed President Benigno Aquino III’s P18.9-billion flagship housing program rendered soldiers and cops homeless and admitted the “hellish” housing units remain unused for the last three years because the units were “unsafe and unfit” for humans.
“It’s hard lessons learned,” was all the NHA could say to Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, who demanded that the Palace explain why the houses constructed were “uninhabitable and substandard” despite P18.9 billion (not P18.6 billion as earlier reported) in funding.
The NHA also admitted some P120 million worth of school buildings remain idle due to unavailability of teachers and students as a result of the refusal of the families to relocate to the housing communities that Alejano said were isolated, not secure and inaccessible to social services and transport.
With three months remaining before Aquino steps down, the NHA vowed to correct the problems in the President’s flagship housing policy.
“President Aquino has a few months remaining in office and our gallant and brave soldiers and cops are rendered homeless during his entire term,” said Alejano, a close ally of President Aquino.
The Office of Vice President Jejomar Binay said the vice president had nothing to do with the housing units for the 130,000 soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the 150,000 members of the Philippine National Police.
“VP Binay had nothing to do with the substandard housing projects. The flagship housing program for the AFP and PNP is not under the Office of the Vice President. The NHA was placed under the Office of the President. It was taken away from him. It is a special project of the President. NHA general manager Chito Cruz reports directly to the President. Cruz is a classmate of the President and he replaced VP Binay as chairman of the Housing Urban Development Coordinating Council,” said Joey Salgado, Binay’s director of communications.
Cruz, during interpellation of the NHA budget in the House, answered Alejano’s queries through Negros Oriental Rep. Pryde Henry Teves, who was the sponsor that defended the passage of the NHA budget.
Teves told the plenary the NHA housing board would meet to fix the problem.
But Alejano said the housing board never got back to him to discuss how the agency planned to remedy the problem.
Alejano lamented that it was established during the budget deliberation that the NHA never bothered to consult the soldiers and policemen, who were the end-users of the 67,000 housing units that became dilapidated and rundown after three years in which they remained unoccupied.
The NHA, through Teves, admitted the agency failed to consult the men and women in uniform.
“The soldiers and policemen… were never consulted. They were not even asked whether or not they already owned a house. So those who already own a house have no use for the units but those who badly need a house of their own remain homeless,” Alejano told the plenary.
Alejano added that the less than 10 percent occupancy rate was testimony to the government’s failure to do its due diligence.
“The lowest ranking soldier has a take-home pay of P13,000 minimum a month. With other benefits, the pay could reach as much as P16,000 and under the law, they were supposed to set aside at least 30 percent of their income for housing needs. With base pay of P16,000, the soldiers can afford to pay a monthly amortization of P4,000, which means they can afford to pay at least 20 units at P200 a month in amortization for a 22-square-meter house and lot that was provided by the government,” Alejano said.
“Why not, instead of awarding to them the 22-sqm units at P200 in monthly amortization payable over 30 years, they be allowed to acquire several units equivalent to P4,000 monthly amortization or less. They can easily afford that. Let us not treat our soldiers and cops like informal settlers, who needed to be helped and subsidized with free housing,” Alejano said.
Teves said under the contract, the amortization was automatically deducted from the salaries of the soldiers and cops.
“Precisely why the soldiers and policemen were protesting. They were not even consulted and now they are being threatened that should they defy the order to occupy the hellish and substandard units, the NHA will forfeit the awarded units to them. Who would want to live in an uninhabitable houses? Now, they are even being forced to do that,” Alejano said.
Teves said that under the contract, the men and women in uniform had to abide by the agreement that they and their families should occupy the awarded units and that they were barred from renting the units out to other people.
Teves said the NHA has already completed phases one and two of the four phases of the President’s housing program and agreed that the NHA should correct the problems that were encountered in the first two phases.
He said Alejano’s suggestions could be applied to the last two phases of the ongoing housing project but Teves could not provide the list of the developers that constructed the grossly substandard units.
Alejano said the housing units and the school buildings could not be made accessible to “outsiders” for security reasons.
“It defeats the purpose that the government spent [billions] in public funds for our soldiers and policemen and yet we allow other recipients or outsiders to use the units and the school buildings. But it is appalling to think that these units and buildings are left rotting, unused, unoccupied and we see them fast deteriorating. Such a waste of public funds,” Alejano said.
In an interview with The Standard, Alejano said the Magdalo lawmakers did ocular inspections and found that substandard design and construction of the units were the same in Baras, Rizal; Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon; Zamboanga; Bacolod; and Bulacan, with each province supposed to house 10,000 units.
He cited the case in Rizal where there were 2,000 units constructed but only 180 turned up to accept and occupy the units. There were 140 from the military and 40 from the PNP.
Under the President’s flagship housing program, Alejano said there should be one school building for every 1,000 occupants.
“Not only are substandard housing units idle, the school buildings and covered courts are unused, too,” Alejano said in Filipino.
The same low occupancy rate was noted in other provinces, Alejano said.
“The communities where our military soldiers and policemen are being relocated did not have access to transportation, public markets, schools, hospitals and churches,” Alejano said. “The areas are so isolated, the families felt they were not secure.”
“The reason for the very low occupancy rate at less than 10 percent is because the units are not livable. It is hellish to live there. The government would only make their lives miserable and our soldiers and policemen would not be able to carry out their jobs if they would worry about the families they leave behind. There is no drainage, no water, no power, not even a playground for children,” Alejano said.
“While the men and women in uniform were deployed to areas risking their lives fighting for all of us, their wives and husbands are left behind queuing to fetch water,” Alejano said.
Teves said the NHA made it a point that the doors to the houses and the toilets would be installed only until after the family has moved in.
“The substandard AFP and PNP housing units bastardized the sacrifices rendered by our gallant soldiers and policemen,” Alejano said.
Alejano said the P18.9-billion project was started in 2012 by the NHA that was placed under the Office of the President.
“The NHA is mandated to implement the AFP-PNP Housing program, a flagship program of President Aquino that seeks to provide permanent housing and security of tenure to low-salaried military and police whose need for housing must be addressed immediately,” Alejano said.
“Of the 67,000 units constructed and completed in phases one and two of the four phases, less than 6,700 soldiers and police opted to occupy the houses because of the hellish residential environment. All the rest are vacant and fast deteriorating. Some P18.9 billion in public funds all going to waste,” Alejano told The Standard.
“The foundation and walls [of the housing units] were not completely filled in with cement, the septic tank is easily unearthed because of the thinness of the concrete cover and there are other pertinent issues related to poor construction,” according to Alejano.
“The men and women of AFP and PNP deserve better housing conditions given their commitment, dedication and loyalty to protect and defend the Filipino people from harm,” according to Alejano’s fellow Magdalo Rep. Francisco Ashley Acedillo.
Alejano and Acedillo filed House Resolution 2466 urging Congress to investigate the NHA.
Alejano described the housing units—with a floor area of 22 square meters—as “coops for pigeons” that did not have proper ventilation or any room to move around.
“Worse, the units are not equipped with water and power,” Alejano said.
“The units may come cheap but it is not worth occupying them. We demand that the government do something to correct this anomalous housing program,” Alejano said.
