‘CREBA shares Pag-IBIG’s passions’

We certainly share Pag-IBIG Fund’s twin visions or "passions" of making home acquisition affordable to its members and making housing finance sustainable, as articulated by the Fund’s president-CEO Manuel C. Crisostomo in his speech before CREBA’s 6th monthly business meeting.

And, undoubtedly, we likewise share Mr. Crisostomo’s confidence that "continuing dialogue and cooperation" between Pag-IBIG Fund and CREBA, "along with the whole-hearted support of President Arroyo and Secretary Defensor, can only result in the fulfillment of our shared vision."

Long before the advent of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration, it will be recalled, CREBA had come up with a comprehensive package of housing reforms that aims to make home acquisition affordable not only to Pag-IBIG members, but also to the rest of the millions of homeless Filipino families. We have discussed with government authorities the main features of the CREBA home financing scheme that envisions a large pool of funds with the least call on government budgetary outlays for a sustained and systematic response to growing homelessness in this country.

CREBA’s proposal seeks to provide an aggressive, effective response to the housing needs of both members and non-members of the Pag-IBIG Fund, the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System. The plan calls for the institution of both primary and secondary home mortgage financing for the production of some 500,000 housing units yearly, especially for the low-income and underprivileged homeless families.

The chamber has called and continues to call on the government to adopt this integrated approach to housing finance and mount a systematic housing program amid an increasing backlog of housing units, now estimated to be 4.5 million units.

During a recent meeting between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and business leaders, CREBA had occasion to reiterate its continuing call for "a total, systematic and long-term approach to the crisis of homelessness."

Only last month, CREBA signed an agreement with National Housing Authority general manager Edgardo D. Pamintuan for CREBA members to undertake joint venture socialized housing projects with NHA for low-income families. Mr. Pamintuan viewed the NHA-CREBA agreement as part of the President’s "healing mission" under the government’s program for the poor and the underprivileged sector. The NHA will provide equity participation of up to 40 percent of the joint venture housing projects.

In his speech, Mr. Crisostomo enumerated Pag-IBIG’s moves to provide financing to a number of housing projects under various programs and schemes, seeking the production of thousands of units in the next few years. For their part, SSS and GSIS will undertake their own separate housing programs. In other words, each institution will do its own part in the provision of housing for our people.

Why not place the government’s housing effort – now scattered or diffused among a number of agencies running in different directions with their own disparate charters – under a unified command to save time, consolidate all available resources, capabilities and facilities, and thus, ensure a much higher level of flexibility and efficiency in the planning and management of the housing program?

In the past 11th Congress, we supported the passage of a bill creating a Department of Housing and Urban Development and recommended a number of revisions to further ensure a unified approach to the housing problem. Secretary Defensor was a co-sponsor of the measure during his term as congressman. On top of the amendments to the DHUD bill, CREBA had repeatedly urged the government to consider its proposal for a comprehensive home financing scheme as a most vital component to the housing program.

We need not over-emphasize the importance of responding to the societal needs of the huge homeless sector, and availing of the multiplier effects of housing development on other industries and sectors, especially the manufacturers of basic building materials, the construction sector, and the large technical and professional services group, not to mention its impact on the creation of job opportunities. We have to recognize housing, as economists do, as an effective pump-primer of the national economy.

Yes, CREBA has all along shared Pag-IBIG Fund’s twin visions of affordable home acquisition and sustainable housing finance. In fact, these comprise the mainstay, the nitty-gritty of CREBA’s continuing advocacy. Pag-IBIG Fund’s twin visions may properly called CREBA’s twin passions.- Charlie V. Gorayeb (National president, Chamber of Real Estate & Builders Associations)