President Rodrigo Duterte’s former urban poor chief pushed back at the President’s assertion that free socialized housing for the poorest households is unfeasible due to lack of funds.
“The President himself ordered the free distribution of socialized housing units for Yolanda victims and Metro Manila estero relocatees in Bulacan. How can he now say that free socialized housing cannot be undertaken due to lack of funding? Mr. President, wag po natin lokohin ang mga tao.”
This was the statement of Terry Ridon, Infrawatch PH convenor and Mr. Duterte’s former urban poor chief.
Duterte underfunded socialized housing
Ridon said free socialized housing for the country’s households is a feasible policy platform.
“In order to distribute free socialized housing to the country’s 4.4 million poorest families, the government only needs to spend an annual budget of P158.5 Billion for the next six years to construct the cheapest National Housing Authority (NHA) housing unit. For context, this is only 22-percent of the DPWH’s current budget of 695.7-Billion.”
Ridon said Mr. Duterte even slashed funding for the housing sector this year.
“The executive only allocated a measly budget of P3.6-Billion for the housing sector this year, slashing the previous year’s funding by more than fifty percent. It is thus clear that we are not building more housing for the poor because the President refuses to spend on it, not because of lack of funds.”
Ridon said the current funding for housing is equivalent to only a mere two percent of the funding needed to provide free housing to the country’s poor.
Free housing can slash poverty incidence
“It should be noted that providing free housing to the country’s poorest families means that income spent on their shelter may now be used for other necessities such as food and education. In fact it may be used for new livelihood activities unimaginable due to shelter costs. Free socialized housing will certainly uplift the lives of our country’s poorest households.”
A bit rich
Ridon also said that it is a bit rich for the President to complain about supposedly unfounded criticisms of his leadership in the last five years.
“The President should remind himself that it was him who reneged on his word to jetski to disputed islands to defend our sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea. He had also reneged on his commitment to end the illegal drug trade in his first six months. It is thus a bit rich for the President to call his critics liars, when he had broken so many promises in the past. Mr. President, kumita na yan. Tutok na lang po tayo sa Covid-19 response, marami pa po tayong kailangang gawin.”