Ople to CREBA: Study land access, rental issues

Senate President Blas F. Ople has called on the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Associations (CREBA) to help address policy voids in accessing land for housing and rental housing, which he said are less understood issues a Department of Housing should immediately address."

With the creation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development still being tackled in Congress, Ople said "it is not too soon to ask CREBA, with its expertise and demonstrated social conscience, to begin looking into these policy gaps so that we can prepare an adequate response."

Ople spoke before the CREBA second monthly business meeting Thursday at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati City. Ople was introduced by Rosemarie C. Basa, chamber executive vice president. He expressed confidence that the Senate pass the Biazon-Drilon bill on the DHUD and Congress will approve the measure before its recess by mid-April.

By optimizing government-private sector cooperation in housing, Ople said, President Estrada has "adopted CREBA's own vision of a masterful housing program in the next few years."

After all, he said, the Constitution provides: "The State shall, by law, and for the common good, undertake, in cooperation with the private sector, a continuing program of urban land reform and housing which will make available at affordable cost, decent housing and basic services to underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban centers and resettlement areas."

Public intervention to reduce the cost of housing and make it affordable will have to take the form of conserving or impounding land for low-cost housing, Ople said.

Earlier, in response to the issue of land access, CREBA had recommended the inclusion of the following specific provisions in the proposed Department of Housing bill:

* All urban lands as defined by the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1992, striplands under PD 399 and all lands reclassified by law or local government ordinances before or after the effectivity of the DHUD bill for various non-agricultural purposes, shall be under the department's exclusive jurisdiction.

* The DHUD shall have exclusive authority to formulate and enforce policies and regulations to govern the use of these lands, and no conversion clearance or CARP exemption or any other clearance from the DAR shall be required for purposes of developing these lands for their prescribed uses.

* These lands, being no longer agricultural by law and jurisprudence, shall not be covered by any notice of CARP coverage or acquisition or any other similar instruments by the DAR, and any such instrument if already issued shall be deemed revoked upon the effectivity of the proposed DHUD law.

Prices of land in Metro Manila, for example, will never permit significant housing for the poor in the congested conditions and sky-high prices in the metropolis, Ople said. But, he stressed, the frontiers of the metropolitan area are expanding to Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija -- and the public lands are rapidly disappearing in these areas.

Ople asked: "Since the factor of land cost is the key factor in affordable housing, shouldn't the government take steps to conserve the available disposable land for housing in the areas close to Metro Manila instead of abdicating this function to the land speculators alone?"

Another policy void, the Senate chief said, is rental housing. "Never mind that we are all obsessed with home ownership as the ideal state. But the painful truth is that the bulk of our countrymen are still not yet homeowners but renters. When did we last check on their condition and welfare?"

Ople said, "Most workers are still renting their dwelling places, usually in the urban slums close to their places of work, very often in subhuman conditions at outrageous prices."

He asked, "Should not a commensurate effort be put into the improvement of rental housing even as we frontally address the problems of the homeowning class? I submit that this is a necessary and potentially fruitful area of debate for CREBA and the housing sector of the government."

CREBA, Ople stressed, is rendering indispensable service to the housing needs of our countrymen. He cited its "self-effacing efforts to generate fair and effective laws and rules to keep your community engaged in this invaluable task, and in the Senate hearings we have benefited from the experience and expertise of your leaders and members."

With the forthcoming approval of the DHUD bill, "your sector will be represented at the Cabinet level of decision-making," Ople said. CREBA, he added, is "defining the optimum relationship between the government and the private sector for the pursuit of the general welfare."