Creba rallies housing sector on GMA program

The Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Associations (CREBA) rallied the country’s developers yesterday to join the forthcoming pledging session with President Arroyo committing the delivery of tens of thousands of housing units in the next few months to boost the government’s program for the homeless.

The country’s housing shortage is estimated at some four million units.

In the past few weeks, CREBA has been consulting with developers and the government housing agencies on ongoing, pending or delayed projects to come up with up-to-date information in time for the pledging session with the President.

At the same time, CREBA pointed out, the government housing sector should harmonize its policies and procedures with the pressing requirements of the private sector’s housing projects for speedy delivery and take-out of housing units to the beneficiaries.

CREBA chairman Manuel M. Serrano, national president Florentino S. Dulalia Jr., and Secretary Michael T. Defensor, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, announced the pledging session will highlight the 2002 CREBA-HUDCC National Convention in Baguio City on Oct. 9-11. CREBA director Florante C. Ofrecio is overall convention chairman, while HUDCC Secretary-General Armando A. de Castro is overall vice-chair.

President Arroyo is set to be presented with a formal resolution expressing the housing industry’s commitment to deliver completed or about to be completed socialized and economic housing units.

CREBA officers underscored the multiplier effect of housing development on other industries, especially the manufacturing of basic building materials, the construction sector, the various services-professional groups, with consequent generation of jobs for thousands of skilled personnel and workers, and increased government revenues to be allotted to social programs for the masses. In view of this, they said, housing is recognized by economists as an effective pump-primer of the national economy.

"For this alone and at a time like this," Dulalia said, "industry leaders and the government must feel compelled to work together to find solutions to the problems besetting the housing and building industry and thus help propel the economy out of the doldrums and into vibrancy."

Dulalia and Defensor earlier urged other housing industry associations to join the pledging session and make a similar commitment to President Arroyo. She has identified housing as one of her administration’s priority programs for responding to the people’s basic needs.

CREBA officers are scheduled to meet with housing industry leaders and developers and govenment agencies’ heads on Sept. 10 to expedite the gathering of up-to-date information on housing projects all over the country.

Industry developers will be asked to unburden themselves of their problems with government agencies so these could be taken up with the President through HUDCC to bring about a working private sector-government partnership in the housing program.