Bongbong Marcos urges Congress to establish a national housing program for government employees

Senator Bongbong Marcos has filed Senate Bill 2699, also known as the Civil Service Housing Program of 2011, to address the alarming housing problem in the country and help out millions of under-privileged and homeless Filipinos in the country, especially government employees.

Senator Bongbong said that while numerous agencies, public and private, as well as the local government units, have indeed been effective in instituting programs and constructing facilities aimed at delivering to our citizens the most basic commodity of shelter, there still remains a heavy backlog of 3.63 million housing units.

"It is for these reasons why I filed Senate Bill No. 2699. The goal of this bill is not only to create a national housing program specifically for government employees, but also to integrate into such program all existing individual housing loans of which government employees are the beneficiaries. This bill intends to establish a 'one-stop shop' for the housing needs of government employees and integrate into one single program the various housing programs of these agencies and LGUs, including those of the particular mother units of employees", Sen. Bongbong explained.

In the process, he said, the government will not only be able to address the housing backlog, but also find efficiencies to obviate the bureaucratic delays that normally accompany the implementation of a housing program.

Sen. Bongbong added that while the housing need for all Filipino families is a constant priority, the government has to notice also the largest beneficiary group on whom all government depends: its loyal and hardworking government employees, who are equally in need as well.

The Senator also insisted that because of the built-in facility of an administrative connection between the State and its employees as result of their symbiotic relationship, the government can readily tap into such a facility by accessing its database, and readily reach out to them and implement an effective housing program specially for them.

"The government only has to lay down the policy and coordinate the efforts and the interconnections of the various key shelter agencies involved in addressing the housing need, including the local government units and also the private sector, all of which have their respective programs for housing financing," the Senator said.

In line with the pending initiative in the Senate to establish a single housing agency in the form of a Department of Housing and Urban Development, Sen. Marcos believes that this effective and systemic coordination and interplay of functions and programs in the field of housing that is hoped for in this Program will become all the more logical and will no longer be a far-fetched possibility.

"In the absence of a Department of Housing in our bureaucracy, this bill proposes the establishment of an Executive Committee to implement and administer the proposed national housing program for government employees. For now, it shall act under the administrative supervision of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC). It is ultimately hoped that this Program would eventually be realigned into the ambit of the authority and jurisdiction of Department of Housing and Urban Development once the latter bill gets past the legislative mill," the Senator noted.

Senator Bongbong clarified that the bill hopes to expand the coverage of the bills pending in the Senate Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlements, particularly those of Senators Jinggoy Estrada's and Manuel Villar's, both of which propose to establish a national housing program for public school teachers.