The Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), and the Metro Manila mayors have set forth actions for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Program (4PH).
During the Metro Manila Council (MMC) meeting held recently at the MMDA headquarters in Pasig City, DHSUD Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar said the DHSUD has 170,000 units or 55 projects in different locations in Metro Manila that are currently in construction.
The 4PH program is designed to address the need for decent housing and to build on the potential impact of a robust sector on the growing economy.
Informal settler families (ISF) shall be temporarily relocated to the government staging areas for at least one to two years while the 4PH project is under construction. All ISFs shall be permanently transferred to their new housing area once completed.
DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos said local government units in Metro Manila have a big role to play in identifying idle government lands that can be used for the government’s housing program and staging areas that will serve as temporary shelters.
“The ISF families will not be displaced as we plan in-city relocation.”
“The ISF families will not be displaced as we plan in-city relocation,” Abalos stressed.
MMDA Acting Chairman Atty. Don Artes, who presided over the MMC meeting, said the Metro Manila mayors will come up with an inventory of informal settler families in their areas of jurisdiction and government-owned open spaces or suitable areas as staging sites.
“We will create a Technical Working Group that will be closely working together for the submission of LGUs’ inventories of all available and suitable lands for the program,” said Artes.
San Juan City Mayor and MMC President Francis Zamora also expressed Metro Manila’s commitment and cooperation to ensure the successful implementation of the 4PH program under President’s Executive Order No. 34.
“It is my vision for San Juan to be informal settler families-free, and this project is an opportunity to make it possible.”
“The Metro Manila mayors are in full support of the president’s housing program. It is my vision for San Juan to be informal settler families-free, and this project is an opportunity to make it possible and provide the ISFs with decent housing all over Metro Manila,” Zamora pointed out.
The mayor said the LGUs can also give incentives to owners who will allow the use of their properties that are idle as staging areas.
