Proposed 2023 budget for housing sector cut by almost half

The proposed budget of the housing sector in the 2023 National Expenditures Program (NEP) was 48% lower than its current budget.

On Thursday’s deliberation at the House of Representatives, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) said that the housing sector budget amounts to P4.029 billion.

This is 48% lower than its 2022 budget of P7.67 billion.  The department originally proposed P95.98 billion for its offices and attached agencies.

Of the P4.029 billion, P2 billion will be allocated to the National Housing Authority (NHA); P1.09 billion for DHSUD; P500 million for Social Housing Finance Corporation; and P431 million for Human Settlements Adjudication Commission.

In order to address the six million housing units backlog, the DHSUD earlier asked Congress for a P36 billion interest subsidy every year.

The interest subsidy refers to the portion of the interest to be paid off by the government.

‘“Yan po yung pinresenta natin sa Malacañang with the Cabinet, ‘yan po ay inapprove ni President “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., siya po ay minamadali niya po ako na yung P1 million houses in a year eh magawa po para hindi kami kapusin sa panahon,” DHSUD Secretary Jose Acuzar told the lawmakers.

Acuzar said the program will benefit the informal settler families, which will be identified by the local government units.

He said that the program will also generate more jobs for local developers and contractors.

“Ang ginawa po namin para maproduce yung one million houses ginamit po namin yung local government. Kasi po ang local government siya po ang makaka-alam ng beneficiaries, siya rin po ang makakaalam ang contractors and developers sa lugar nila,” he said.

“In other words, pag local developers ang ginamit ko sa lugar nila, pati trabaho sa lugar nila mabibigyan ng trabaho yung mga constituent ng local government, housing naman po nila ang gagawin ganyan po ang aming programa,” he added.

Meanwhile, ACT Teachers party-list Representative France Castro questioned why the budget for the government employees housing program that used to have P100 million and emergency housing assistance program with P2 billion were not included in the budget.

“That was included in our request with DBM (Department of Budget and Management) kaso lang po ang naibigay lang po ni DBM is P2 billion. It was included in our P70 billion budget request,” National Housing Authority (NHA) general manager Joeben Tai said.

“Problema ‘yan, di ba government employees housing project at for emergency, kung wala ang mga pondong ito, so paano na? Next year ba hindi na tayo makaka-experience ng emergency so matulungan man lang natin ang DHSUD para mabalik ito,” Castro said.

‘Overcharging’ amortization

Gabriela Women's Party representative Arlene Brosas questioned the NHA over the P842.634 million discrepancy in the recorded receivables as stated in the recent report of the Commission on Audit (COA).

Brosas sid one of the reasons for the discrepancy had to do with “price escalation.”

She said that the NHA provided no documents to support hefty price adjustment.

“Bakit po tayo basta basta na lamang nagtataas sa NHA ng amortisasyon at sobra sobra ang sinisingil sa benepisyaryo? Ano po yung basehan na pagtaas ng amortisasyon?” Brosas asked the NHA general manager.

“Sorry your honor, but we don’t have the data right now of the COA findings,” Tai answered.

Brosas cited the complaints of informal settlers in Tondo, Manila and Pandi, Bulacan.

“In the case of Tondo, P300 dati ang amortization tapos lumobo na sa P3,000 ang binabayaran ngayon ng ilang residente sa Diosdado Macapagal Low Rise Building. Sa Pandi, P312 ngayon ang binabayaran pero dapat P200 pesos lang sa first five years. Wala tayong exact number ng occupants na inoovercharge, pero meron tayong official receipts from them,” Brosas told GMA News Online.

“We are asking these questions on the COA findings because we want the NHA to explain their funding utilization before we provide an additional budget. We can't just give another subsidy if they're not going to use it to fulfill their mandate which is to provide decent, affordable, and public mass housing,” she said.

She then requested the NHA to look into the COA report, saying that the beneficiaries will be greatly affected.

“We will look into that and we will also review the pricing policy of that project,” Tai said in response.

Tai, meanwhile, said that they have constructed and given at least 265,000 housing units for calamity victims from 2016 to 2022.—LDF, GMA News