COA urged to release full report on Informal Settler Fund

MANILA, Philippines - Urban poor groups in Metro Manila will reiterate today its call to the Commission on Audit (COA) to release a full-audit report on the Informal Settler Fund (ISF).

The ISF worth a total of P50 billion with P10 billion each year is a fund released by the government to finance the construction of housing projects for the urban poor. Part of the ISF is released through the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), amounting to P11.05 billion.

“Almost three years since its first release in October 2011, the fund could have reached more than P20 billion yet we are not feeling any improvement in the housing condition of the poor,” Kadamay national secretary-general Carlito Badion said.

Earlier this June, partylist groups filed House Resolution No. 1167 at the House of Representatives, urging the Committee on Housing and Urban Development to probe how the National Housing Authority (NHA), the Social Housing Finance Corp. and the Department of the Interior and Local Government used the P50 billion for the relocation of 104,219 families of informal settlers from high-risk areas such as esteros, railroad tracks, riverbanks, shorelines and other waterways.

The resolution said that more than half the fund or P27.5 billion werer spent over the last three years: P10 billion in 2010, P10 billion in 2012 and P7.5 billion in 2013.

Badion claimed that the COA audit has been highly selective and favored only the interest of the administration.

"We feared that this fund had been used to finance contracts entered [into] by government housing agencies with private developers including the New San Jose Builders, Inc. which is owned by Jerry Acuzar, brother-in-law of Malacanang's Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa," he said.

“We have every right to know how the government spent every cent of the Informal Settler Fund," he added.

In September last year, urban poor group Kadamay submitted a letter to the COA requesting for an audit report of the ISF, yet almost a year after, their request has remained unanswered. This morning, the groups planned to refile their request.

After their protest at the COA, groups will then march the South Gate of the House of the Representatives where parts of the P10.987 billion housing budget for next year is expected to be passed by the congressmen.

The budget includes fund for the National Housing Authority, worth more than P5 billion and the Socialized Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) worth P4.743 billion.