Zubiri exhorts passage of Rent Control Act of 2009

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri pushed for the passage of the Rent Control Act of 2009, to protect over 1.5 million households, as well as the countless other individuals renting rooms and bed spaces or in dormitories exposed to possible abuses by property owners.

Zubiri in a sponsorship speech Wednesday, said "of the 15,278,808 households in the country, only two thirds or 10,866,001 live in houses they own or in the units in which they pay monthly amortization, while over two million live free of charge with the owner's consent and 631,451 families are renting." (Figures from the National Statistical Coordination Board)

The Majority Leader who once experienced living in a dormitory while taking up his Agri-Business Management course at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna, expressed disappointment that up to this day "Filipinos still cannot afford to purchase new housing units built by private housing developers and even by the government housing agencies."

"It is imperative that we take steps to protect the interest of our fellow citizens who are forced by circumstances to rent, by once again supporting the Rent Control Act."

Zubiri co-sponsored Senate Bill No. 3163 after the Rent Control Act of 2005 expired December last year.

The Senate version of the proposed Rent Control Act of 2009 retains the salient provisions of the originalRent Control Law. These include the rent increases of covered units at 10 percent annually, as long as the unit is occupied by the same lessee. The proposed limit on rent increase will be effective until December 31, 2011.

Other provisions that were retained under the proposed Rent Control Act of 2009 include the following: a lessor could not demand more than one month advance and two months deposit; a lessor or his successor-in-interest is prohibited from ejecting a lessee on the ground that the leased premises has been sold or mortgaged to a third person, regardless of whether the lease or mortgage is registered or not.

The measure also proposes that the grounds for Judicial Ejectment would still be limited to the grounds provided in the previous law.

However, the proposed bill recommends that the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) continue to regulate or deregulate the rent within a period of three years after the lapse of the effectivity of the limitation on rent hike or after the December 31, 2011.

Zubiri urged that "until every Filipino family can afford to buy or build their own homes and until we can assure that our busiest districts are readily accessible by convenient and faster means of transportationeven to those who do not live close by or in the rural areas or outside of urban centers, it is imperative that we support those who opted to rent for convenience and to stretch the amount of their pay checks."

He likewise asked the other senators to join and assist him in "ensuring that lessees are not subject to indiscriminate increases in rent during this period of economic crisis."