House panel adopts reso declaring housing crisis in Philippines

The House committee on housing and urban development on Wednesday adopted a substitute resolution declaring a housing crisis in the Philippines.

The panel urged the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development as well as other concerned government agencies to mobilize their resources to provide adequate housing to underserved families.

“It is incumbent upon Congress to determine the efficient mobilization of government resources in the implementation of housing laws which will contribute to our economic recovery, growth, and resilience, and will translate to the benefit of present and future generations,” the resolution said.

House Resolution 1458 underscored the need to construct a total of 6,796,920 housing units by 2022. It noted that the national government had allocated "very limited" funds for housing from 2010 to 2021.

It said that from July 2016 to June 2020, the government as well as the private sector only built 777,879 housing units.

Aside from that, the Philippines is also "vulnerable" to natural calamities and that its adverse effects could displace families living in danger zones.

Failure to address the country's housing problem would mean more informal settlers in the country, the resolution said.

Citing data from DHSUD, the resolution said there are 1,898,993 informal settler families in the country, with 478,899 staying in the National Capital Region.—AOL, GMA News