IN two years of office, the Marcos administration failed to fulfill the promised one million housing units per year for Filipinos.
The government’s Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino Housing or 4PH Project aims to build one million housing units annually or six million housing units by 2028.
In the pre-SONA briefing this Monday, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar explained that it will be difficult for them to complete the target of six million housing units under the Marcos administration.
Currently, DHSUD has 40 projects under construction in different areas in the Philippines, equivalent to 140,000 units.
‘’It took a long time, that’s why we promised one million [annually]. It turned out to be only 140,000 because that’s how long your funding takes when you make it private sector money,’’ according to Sec. Jose Rizalino Acuzar, DHSUD.
Acuzar explained the challenges of building these housing units.
‘’The first problem—as I’ve been telling you, is funding. All our projects need money. Now, what do we need to do? So we searched for formulas—and take what looks interesting, everything—until we developed it,’’ Acuzar said.
Then, the government will give an interest subsidy, and Pag-Ibig [fund] agreed, and we all have come to an agreement. But the problem is the construction.
The secretary also mentioned the difficulty in finding idle land to build the units.
Acuzar said that urban areas or cities lack idle lands where housing units are supposed to be built and that they have experienced delays due to the bidding process.
As a result, DHSUD has reduced its housing target from six million to three million units.
