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Socialized Housing

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The inadequacy of decent and affordable shelter for the poor—a result of government’s poor delivery of housing for informal settlers and those left homeless by the Marawi siege and natural calamities—undermines human dignity. Urban informal settlers hold on to President Duterte’s promise that no eviction and demolition will take place under his watch, yet the administration’s infrastructure projects, such as the South Rail Project which could displace an estimated 100,000 families, do not have clear and publicly accessible resettlement plans. Although the president’s decision to give the housing units illegally occupied in March 2017 by the urban poor group Kadamay may demonstrate his compassion for the poor, it is a short-term solution that disregards the rule of law, circumvents proper procedures, and overlooks the need for a programmatic approach to providing housing for the poor in general. The creation of a housing department, a priority measure of the administration, is seen to improve people’s access to decent housing, but no significant reforms within the housing agencies have taken place.

Updated as of July 31, 2018

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CATHOLIC SOCIAL PRINCIPLE:

Integral Development Based on Human Dignity and Solidarity

Public policy and government programs must promote development that not only fulfills the material needs of citizens, but also affirms human dignity and freedom, integrity in governance, national sovereignty, and the spiritual dimension of human beings.

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During the third year commemoration of super-typhoon Yolanda in November 2016, the president ordered the National Housing Authority (NHA) to fast-track the relocation of affected families to permanent housing sites. He expected all the families subject for relocation to have transferred to government housing projects within a month. When he returned in Tacloban in January 2017, he gave the NHA until March 2017 to finish the resettlement sites.


The House Committee on Housing and Urban Development threatened to pursue a case against an NHA contractor that used substandard materials (i.e., steel bars that are below the standard thickness) in a resettlement project in Balangiga, Eastern Samar and presumably in other projects awarded to the company which amounts to ₱800 million in total. The said contractor was to build at least 2,000 houses intended for Yolanda-affected families. The issue first emerged after a visit by the committee in government housing projects in Tacloban City and during a hearing held on September 6, 2017. The following month, the NHA terminated the contract with the construction company for “missing its construction timetable.”

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More than four years since Super Typhoon Yolanda, the NHA has built less than half of its target housing units for affected families. President Duterte’s threat-laden directive to NHA to speed up finishing the projects proved ineffective. As of June 2018, the NHA has completed the construction of 92,088 units out of the 205,128 units it targeted to build in 14 Yolanda-affected provinces in the Visayas. Of these, 59,420 had been occupied. The projects are likely to be delayed further as the NHA cancels 46 housing projects for Yolanda-affected families after its fact-finding committee revealed various defects and unjustified delay.

The NHA failed to meet the March 2017 deadline set by the president for completing post-Yolanda resettlement projects for affected families in Tacloban City due to poor weather. As for the housing projects in other provinces, the NHA attributed the delay to the lack of available titled lands, validation of beneficiaries by the local governments, delays in the issuance of permits and land use reclassification approvals, among others.

Intended beneficiaries and concerned NGOs have been complaining about the substandard quality of the units, which the NHA has “vehemently denied.”


With the government’s focus on rebuilding Marawi City after a five-month fighting between government forces and local terrorist groups, there is concern among Yolanda-affected families and the organizations assisting them that the construction of still unbuilt housing units for those who lost their homes to the typhoon might be jeopardized or further delayed. It should also be noted that the NHA has yet to repair defective and substandard units in its housing projects for survivors of Typhoon Sendong (international name: Washi) in 2011 and Typhoon Pablo (international name: Bopha) in 2012. The poor quality of the houses and facilities built by the housing agency was accentuated when a group of politicians and government officials fell off a collapsed wooden footbridge in a housing project for families displaced by the siege of Zamboanga City in 2013.

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The budget for housing was cut by almost half from ₱11.7 billion in 2017 to ₱5.9 billion in 2018. The NHA, a government-owned and controlled corporation which builds most of the socialized housing projects for informal settlers and disaster victims, was given a budget amounting to ₱3.26 billion, 79% of which would be used for building housing projects intended for soldiers and police personnel. The lower budget allocation would result in fewer poor households assisted by the government’s housing program.

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The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill No. 6775 which would establish the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development. By establishing one-stop processing centers as well as mandating agencies to ensure a rational, well-balanced, and efficient development of new settlements and redevelopment of existing communities (including informal settlements), the bill, if passed, may improve access to housing, especially by the poor.

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House Bill No. 6775 creating the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development Act merely merges two shelter agencies, the Housing and Urban Development Council (HUDCC) and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). It overlooks more fundamental issues and problems encountered with existing shelter agencies (e.g., lack of transparency and accountability, substandard housing units, lack of basic services in resettlement areas), as well as the need to set the policy direction for urban development.    

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The Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM), a multiagency team steered by the defense secretary formed to help rehabilitate Marawi City, dropped plans to put up a tent city, and instead decided to build sturdier, semi-permanent structures for residents who lost homes. However, the displaced families will not be allowed to return to their homes until the main battle-zone has been cleared of unexploded ordnances and improvised explosive devices; the clearing operations are expected to be completed by April 2018. They will be staying in five temporary relocation sites, one of which is in Barangay Sagonsongan, where 250 housing units have been turned over.


Malacañang reported that as of January 2018, three months after the “liberation” of Marawi, 20% of the 6,400 temporary housing units have been built. (There is no clear number of displaced families to be given housing assistance.) To expedite the construction of these housing projects for displaced Maranaos, President Duterte, through Executive Order No. 49, granted the NHA exemption from the coverage of the guidelines of the National Economic and Development Authority) on joint venture agreements.


To start reducing the number of families in the 67 evacuation centers outside the city, the TFBM encouraged the families outside “ground zero” to accommodate internally displaced persons (IDPs) through the “Adopt a Family” Program. The TFBM is also considering to implement the “Send a Family Home” Program  that will grant financial assistance to each IDP family, who does not have a property in the city, to return to their original towns.

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Unless a clear transport assistance is in place, the government’s approach to providing transitional housing to internally-displaced persons (IDPs) of Marawi in sites outside the city proper may adversely impact the IDPs’ access to work and livelihood. The Moro Consensus Group, a civil society organization in Mindanao, proposed that families be given financial assistance to enable them to rebuild their damaged houses.


The government turned over to at least 250 families the keys to their temporary shelters even if these units were not yet ready for occupancy. Electrical connections were not yet installed, and the roads and drainage canals still unfinished. Poor weather, delayed arrival of materials, and lack of heavy equipment were cited as reasons for the inadequate facilities.

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Housing for families to be affected by the North-South Railway Project will be funded by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) using the ₱54-billion budget allotted to it for that purpose. The NHA and the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) will spearhead the provision of housing for these families. A social preparation fund amounting to ₱1 billion has been committed to the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) to assist around 100,000 families (from Tutuban, Manila to Bicol) develop plans for site upgrading or off-site (preferably in-city) resettlement.


The transportation department also assured that it is coordinating with the local government of Quezon City and the NHA for the relocation of  informal settlers to be displaced by the construction of MRT-7, which will run from North Avenue, Quezon City to San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

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The DOTr announced that resettlement areas for informal settler families occupying areas earmarked for the MRT-7 include those to be developed by the NHA in Tanay, Rizal, a town at least 55 kilometers from Quezon City. This would impact on the capacity of workers to keep their jobs and of working age individuals to access jobs that are close at hand in cities.

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The Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) decided to stop the construction of a project that the Commission on Audit (COA) questioned in its June 2018 report because of the site’s instability and susceptibility to flooding. The shelter agency committed to conduct soil contamination and soil bearing capacity tests  “to further assess the feasibility of the project site for a three-storey housing development” and ensure the safety of at least 860 families.

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CATHOLIC SOCIAL PRINCIPLE:

Universal Purpose of Earthly Goods and Private Property

Public policy and government programs must reflect the conviction that all the goods of the earth are intended to fulfill the needs of all and to be shared fairly by all. It must recognize that private property has a social dimension, and that the rights of private ownership are limited by the urgent basic needs of others for food, safe and decent housing, and livelihood.

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In his third SONA, the president appealed to the Senate to pass the National Land Use Act. The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill No. 5420 or the National Land Use and Management Act of 2017 (NLUA), a piece of legislation which, by including “settlements” as a land use category, will rationalize the delineation of lands suitable for housing without sacrificing the need for land for food security. In his second State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Duterte had already urged Congress to pass the NLUA.

“I therefore urge the Senate to urgently pass the National Land Use Act to put in place a national land use policy that will address our competing land requirements for food, housing, businesses, and environmental conservation. We need to do this now.”

President Duterte, July 23, 2018

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The prospects for the NLUA’s passage in the Senate remain uncertain. The Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, headed by the wife of a real estate magnate accused of land grabbing, has yet to set a hearing on four NLUA bills.

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Socialized housing (costing ₱450,000 and below, including those in projects by the NHA) continues to be exempt from value added tax (VAT) under Republic Act 10963 or the first package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN 1). This allayed concerns raised by developers and advocates that the tax reform package would make housing more unaffordable.

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CATHOLIC SOCIAL PRINCIPLE:

Social Justice and Love

Public policy and government programs must correct historical injustice to groups of the marginalized and must promote equality, within the context of love for one’s fellow human beings.

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The president has ordered a stop to demolitions of informal settler communities for which no decent relocation sites have been prepared. In line with this pronouncement, the former chairperson of the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor (PCUP) said the administration will prioritize on-site and in-city resettlement for informal settlers who would be displaced by the planned big-ticket infrastructure projects.

“During my time, there will be no demolition if there is no relocation. I won’t let it happen.

President Duterte, July 18, 2016

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Despite pronouncements that informal settlers will not be evicted, and their communities not demolished until they are given adequate relocation, threats of displacements continue, sometimes with violence:

  • Sixteen households in Puerto Princesa City lost their homes in August 2017 after a demolition crew tore down the structures on a property that will be developed into a shopping mall. Residents, who had been in the community for more 40 years, said they sought and were awaiting a temporary restraining order from the local court but the demolition proceeded.

  • Tension arose in Naga City in August 2017 when residents of a 14-hectare private property blocked the regional sheriff of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) carrying the demolition order. Residents, including members of a farmers’ association, prevented policemen from entering the community, but the protest led to a standoff, forcing the regional DAR officer to leave the area.

  • Violence erupted in Pasig City after informal settlers occupying the East Bank of the Manggahan Floodway and members of the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) clashed with police officers during an anti-demolition protest in August 2017. The police allegedly dispersed the demonstration and arrested 41 individuals, including 14 women and 10 minors, for illegal assembly and direct assault. Two months after, the city government pushed through with the demolition, claiming that families had accepted relocation to Calauan, Laguna and Rodriguez and Tanay, Rizal as well as a financial assistance of ₱20,000 per family. Some residents, however, claimed that they were not informed about the demolition that left 2,000 families homeless. Some transferred to a yet-to-be-completed multistory housing project intended for them.

Instead of developing in-city housing projects for families residing in old government housing projects declared “unsafe and susceptible to disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes”, the NHA, with concurrence of the city governments of Manila and Taguig, proposed the “preventive evacuation” of over 6,000 families of Punta Tenement in Sta. Ana, Manila; Vitas Temporary Housing in Tondo, Manila; and Fort Bonifacio Tenement in Taguig. The affected families were offered units in distant resettlement projects such as those in Naic and Trece Martires in Cavite and Baras in Rizal; the nearest relocation site is the multistory housing project in north Caloocan.

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CATHOLIC SOCIAL PRINCIPLE:

Love of Preference for the Poor

Public policy and government programs must be oriented first of all toward meeting the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized in society.

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At a housing summit organized by the NHA in February 2017, the president announced that he had approved the granting of free housing for victims of Typhoon Pablo and Supertyphoon Yolanda. NHA would receive ₱50 billion to construct houses for at least 200,000 affected families. It also committed to construct at least 500,000 socialized housing units in 2017, but admitted that a free housing program will not be workable. (However, given NHA’s track record with the post-Yolanda housing, this commitment does not appear to be realistic.)

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Government is yet to provide details of the free housing program announced by the president, except for the condition that “beneficiaries would not be able to sell or mortgage the property, or make it a collateral for any loan.”

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The president allowed the awarding of housing units in NHA resettlement projects in Bulacan to members of the militant urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), which on March 8, 2017 occupied unused units in six NHA housing projects in Bulacan intended for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).  Although the gesture was partly intended to prevent the public relations nightmare of poor people being dragged violently from the houses at the command of a “pro-poor” administration, it may also demonstrate the compassion for the poor that the president’s supporters believe he has (at least, for those of the poor who are not criminals or drug addicts). 

On October 4, 2017, the resolution authorizing the NHA to award the units originally intended for the police and soldiers to public school teachers, local government employees, barangay officials, and qualified informal settlers (including members of Kadamay) passed third and final reading in the House of Representatives. The Senate passed its version on December 11, 2017, which the House of Representatives adopted as an amendment to House Joint Resolution No. 15 on January 17, 2018.

President Duterte enacted the resolution into law by signing on May 9, 2018 Joint Resolution No. 2. The NHA Board has yet to formulate the new law’s implementing rules and regulations, although a loan payment scheme has been readied; it is not clear though if the scheme adopts the suggestion of Kadamay to reduce the monthly amortization.

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After saying he would not tolerate the illegal occupation, and accusing the group of being used by the Left for “anarchical activities,” the president allowed members of Kadamay to keep the housing units and promised policemen and soldiers bigger and better houses. Although this gesture seems to demonstrate the president’s compassion for the poor, it is also a short-term solution that flouts the rule of law, circumvents proper procedure, and overlooks the broader problem of providing housing for the poor in general.

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CATHOLIC SOCIAL PRINCIPLE:

Peace and Active Non-violence

Public policy and government programs must promote peace not as the suppression of conflict, but as the result of constructive dialogue and holistic solutions which treat conflicting parties as human beings and address the root causes of conflict.

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To help former members of the New People’s Army (NPA) reintegrate into their communities in Davao, the government, through the NHA and with funding support from a private foundation, has started building an 840-unit housing project intended mainly for rebel returnees. The project is expected to be completed in March 2018.

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On July 25, 2017 the president threatened members of the Kadamay that if they persisted in forcibly occupying government housing projects and resisted efforts to drive them out, they would be clubbed or shot. The use of violent language reinforces the mindset of relying on extra-judicial actions to address violations of the law instead of letting the rule of law prevail by filing appropriate cases in court.

On June 14, 2018, following another attempt of Kadamay to take over a housing project in Rodriguez, Rizal for policemen and soldiers—which the group later clarified as a “bantayang bahay” or guarding of their housing rights and a peaceful protest against the delay in the implementation of Joint Resolution No. 2—the president ordered the Philippine National Police to prevent Kadamay from occupying housing projects and to use force and kill, if needed, to implement a legal regulation.

“Sabi ko sa pulis kunin ninyo uli. Kung gusto ninyo ng away sabihin ko sa pulis, bigyan mo ng away, kung magkamatayan, ‘wag kayo mauna pero kung kailangan pumatay kayo para i-implement ang legal na regulasyon, gawin ninyo… Mamatayan? Lima, anim, pito, wala kong pakialam.” (I told the police to take them back. If you want a fight, I’ll tell the police to give you one; if there’s killing, don’t be the first to do it but if you need to kill to implement the legal regulation, do it.)

President Duterte, June 14, 2018

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CATHOLIC SOCIAL PRINCIPLE:

People Empowerment

Public policy and government programs must enable people to become “active and responsible subjects of social life,” institutionalizing mechanisms for meaningful participation at all levels of governance and protecting the civil rights and freedoms which allow such participation. Public policy and government programs must nurture the development of strong civil society organizations and institutions and protect the autonomy of civil society from the state, recognizing the principle of subsidiarity which requires that decisions be made as much as possible at the level closest to the people.

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The Ranaw Multi-Sectoral Movement claimed that Maranaos do not have adequate participation in the rehabilitation of Marawi City, and complained that “the ordinary folks of the lakeside city have been left out in the plans laid out by the Task Force Bangon Marawi during consultations” regarding what it seems to them as “an invasion of a different kind.” The government task force denied this claim.

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Although the president’s “informal” awarding of NHA housing units to Kadamay members who had occupied them seems at first blush an affirmation of people empowerment, it also reinforces the image of the president as a patron. The unauthorized occupation might also set a precedent for the group (or for other urban informal settlers) to assert their right to housing by disregarding proper procedure and setting aside existing policies. Such tactics obscure the meaning of people’s participation/empowerment that recognizes “God’s fundamental gifts of freedom and responsibility.” (PCP-II)