THE government of President Marcos deserves the support of the Filipino people as it tries to come up with the best solution to homelessness in the Philippines.
With the skyrocketing prices of construction materials, such as cement, steel and galvanized iron (GI) sheets, more and more people find it hard to have their own houses.
That’s why we doff our hat to the government, through the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), for doing everything to address the problem.
DHSUD Secretary Jose Ramon Aliling underscored how policy reforms, program expansion, and a people-centered approach have strengthened the government’s housing and urban development agenda.
In 2022, the DHSUD launched President Marcos’ highly-successful flagship “Expanded Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program.”
Under the “Expanded 4PH,” housing delivery now goes beyond vertical developments to include horizontal housing and rental housing.
Set up in 2019 by Republic Act (RA) No. 11201, DHSUD consolidated the housing and urban development functions under one agency.
But perhaps, the government should also look deeper into the question of squatting, given the presence of the so-called “professional squatters.”
We are made to believe that these highly-enterprising “professional squatters” are behind the unsolved squatting problem in the country.
We, thus, urge the authorities to speed up the building of low-cost housing units for the poor, but should also hit hard at professional squatters.
The post Housing program appeared first on Journal News Online.
