by: Engr. Paula Jane S.

Zapanta

Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC)

We Filipinos, after centuries of being colonized and deprived of our own native land, have come
to envision private land ownership as a privilege available to the rich. With private
developments still dominating the market, even through financing by the government, it is still
the market that greatly influences decisions in housing and shelter developments. This situation,
with our own land titling systems, housing market, and financing arrangements inclined towards
the wealthy and “can-afford”, corroborates land ownership to be a pipe dream for most of our
countrymen.

In the promotion of the general welfare of its citizens, our national government has created
various National Government Agencies (NGAs) that would aid in the administration of specific
functions towards the achievement of a balanced and just life for all - a life where all of this
nation’s constituents have equal access and opportunity to food, clothing, livelihood, shelter, as
well as a sound environment.

The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) is the umbrella agency of
the government for various housing and development offices, with the Office of the President as
its parent agency.

The agency traces its origin on October 14, 1938 where the People’s Homesite Corporation
(PHC) was created as the first government housing agency, followed by the creation of the
National Housing Commission (NHC) on September 17, 1945.

On October 4, 1947 the PHC and NHC was merged into the People’s Homesite and Housing
Commission (PHHC). Thereafter, six more housing agencies were created to address different
shelter requirements in the years that followed. These are: Presidential Assistant on Housing
and Resettlement Agency (PAHRA); the Tondo Foreshore Development Authority (TFDA); the
Central Institute for the Training and Relocation of Urban Squatters (CITRUS); the Presidential
Committee for Housing and Urban Resettlement (PRECHUR); the Sapang Palay Development
Committee (SPDC); the Inter-Agency Task Force to Undertake the Relocation of Families in
Barrio Nabacaan, Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.

On October 15, 1975 the National Housing Authority (NHA) was organized as a government
owned and controlled corporation by virtue of PD No. 757 dated July 31, 1975. The creation of
the NHA abolished the PHHC and the six other housing agencies, integrating the functions of
these agencies, and for the second time, as an attempt to integrate all housing efforts under a
single agency.

In the year 1978 the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS) was created to adopt a wholistic
approach to housing, placing the NHA as an attached agency to the MHS. Its regulatory arm, the

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Human Settlements Regulatory Commission (HSRC) would later be renamed Housing and Land
Use Regulatory Board (HLURB).

Under the government of President Corazon C. Aquino, Executive Order No. 10 dated March 26,
1986 placed the NHA and other attached agencies of the MHS under the Office of the President.
That same year on December 17, 1986, in order to rationalize the government’s housing
structure Executive Order No. 90 was issued.

EO 90 abolished the MHS and created the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating
Council (HUDCC) to serve as the highest policy making body, an umbrella agency for housing,
and as coordinator of various government housing agencies’ activities. The EO also placed the
NHA under HUDCC, where it was charged to be the sole government agency to engage in
housing production.

At present, attached agencies that operate under HUDCC are the following:

HOUSING FINANCE

Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) also known as Pag-ibig Fund was established on
11 June 1978 by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 1530 to address the two equally
important needs of the nation at the time: a national savings program and an affordable
shelter financing for the Filipino worker. Where private employee’s funds were handled by
the Social Security System (SSS) and the government employee’s funds were handled by the
Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). The agency has undergone some changes in
administration and regulation of programs, from mandatory to voluntary and back, each
time evolving into an agency with a wide reach that covers other financing needs as well as
becoming more acceptable to society and gaining the confidence of its members in terms of
corporate governance and reliability.

The Pag-ibig Fund, an acronym which stands for Pagtutulungan sa Kinabukasan: Ikaw,
Bangko, Industryia at Gobyerno continue to be the nation’s savings fund that is managed
for accessible and affordable housing, calamity and multi-purpose loan agency.

Home Guarantee Corporation (HGC) was created in 1950 as the Home Financing
Commission, institutionalizing a system of credit guarantees that provide risk covers to
developers, banks and financing institutions. This system assists them to undertake
socialized, low and medium cost mass housing projects, thus encouraging increased
investments flow into housing and urban development.

HOUSING REGULATION

Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) is the government’s regulatory body for
housing and land development. HLURB covers regulation of land use, housing development,

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 homeowners associations and the resolution of relevant disputes. Where Batas Pambansa
220 (BP 220) regulates economic/socialized housing and Presidential Decree 957 (PD957)
regulates open market housing. Housing developments are regulated according to the
maximum selling price, project location, land allocation, minimum lot areas and frontages,
length of block, right of way and interior roads. This regulatory function of HLURB sets the
standards for housing that is economic, affordable and a liveable space for human dwelling.
Other functions of the HLURB include providing guidelines and assistance in preparation
and approval of Local Government Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUPs) as well as
update and revise the National Urban Development and Housing Framework under the
direction of HUDCC.

HOUSING PRODUCTION

National Housing Authority (NHA) is mandated to focus on socialized housing through the
development and implementation of a comprehensive and integrated housing
development and resettlement programs. NHA is tasked to fast track the determination and
development of government lands suitable for housing and ensure the sustainability of
socialized housing funds by improving its collection efficiency, among others. As of 18
February 2016, the NHA has reported an equity of 89.402 Billion Pesos, which means that
the agency has capability in producing the country’s socialized housing needs.

On May 28, 2001, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Executive Order No. 20 which
reaffirmed mass housing as a centrepiece program in the poverty alleviation efforts of the
government, and further strengthened the HUDCC. The government recognized that building
decent and affordable shelter for the poor alleviates them from poverty and is strongly linked to
creating economic value for the families living in them. And that housing development programs
result in generating multiple economic benefits that help stimulate growth in all sectors of
society, thus the creation of new Agencies that intend to bring housing programs closer to the
poor.

HOUSING FINANCE – NEW APPROACHES

National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC) shall be the government's major
secondary mortgage institution, able to attract long-term funds to provide a strong and
sustainable housing finance.

Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) was created on 20 January 2004 through
Executive Order No. 272 (EO 272), which directs the transfer of the Community Mortgage
Program (CMP), Abot Kaya Pabahay Fund (AKPF) Program, and other social housing powers
and functions of the NHMFC to the SHFC. Through its mandate, SHFC is the lead
government agency tasked to undertake social housing programs that will cater to the
formal and informal sectors in the low-income bracket and administer social housing
program schemes aimed to improve the living conditions of the underprivileged
communities.

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Over the decades, the names and nature of the government’s principal housing agency has
changed over and over but the state of socialized housing has remained backward. Even when
housing is available, the prohibitive costs of renting or purchasing and the lack of easy access to
mortgage or lending systems place decent housing beyond the reach of ordinary citizens. The
agency before reinventing itself must first exhaust all implementation mechanisms to make sure
these programs are accessible to the intended beneficiaries – the nation’s poor. It is only when
policies, programs and projects are created with these people in mind, can the agency be able to
interest these people to avail of the government’s programs.

Squatting and being landless is a sad and inescapable reality for many. The lack of secure titles
and the prevalence of informal ties to land often result in dispossession and eviction. It is the
role of these agencies to provide leverage to the disadvantaged, and prove that rights to shelter
are upheld and observed by the government and by society. Government must educate these
poor communities that they must strive hard to pay for their own land, a land that can never be
taken away from them again. By providing secure titles and soft loans, these rights are
demonstrated and enjoyed. People then are persuaded leave the past behind and welcome a
hopeful new life ahead.

A global trend in social housing solution is through promotion of homebuilding and land
ownership through self-help. In the Philippines, SHFC launched new projects focused on
empowering the communities. Community mortgage program and high density housing
programs are developed together with the community, assessing their needs, designing their
built environment, and structuring payment schemes that are affordable to the lower-than-
minimum wage earners.

Another key player are local community organizations and housing advocacy groups who work
in close cooperation with the relevant branches of government to find solutions to the housing
crisis and to build more sustainable communities. Working together, people are able to create
and build their communities according to their own definition of quality of life rather than that
of government bureaucrats and elite planners.

In retrospect, throughout the history of Philippine Housing, from financing to production, to

regulation, and to community building, it may be seen that adequate housing is not simply a
matter of building concrete structures or infrastructure, but is intrinsically a social and human
problem that relates to the empowerment of local communities. The idea of people-centered
solutions to housing problems stresses the importance of people’s access to and control of their
own resources, and their ability to participate in larger decision-making processes that relate to
their lives. After all, the common good cannot be defined by a few, but emanates from the
desires of the masses, where shelter becomes one of the basic rights that restore dignity and
empower society.

Sources:

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Cruz, RG, 13 February 2018, House Oks bill creating human settlement department, Retrieved from
http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/02/13/18/house-oks-bill-creating-human-settlement-department

www.nha.gov.ph/about_us/brief_history.html

www.hudcc.gov.ph/content/history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_and_Urban_Development_Coordinating_Council

Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, 5 June 1998, Housing in the Philippines, “Toward a Social
Foreign Policy in Asia”, Human Rights Dialogue 1.11, Retrieved from
https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/archive/dialogue/1_11/exploring_commonality/591

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