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Undertaken for Habitat for Humanity
By
A Presentation to Habitat for Humanity Philippines
May 9, 2012, Version 3

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• Rationale:
▫ Gather information related to housing policies and programs from both national and city level government organizations
• Output:
▫ Submission of Survey Instrument to Habitat for Humanity
• Scope:
▫ Property rights, finance, subsidies, city level infrastructure and regulatory support
• Information sources
 different departments in the city organization: planning, urban poor affairs, cooperative, assessor, architect, building and zoning, engineering, and police
 National level organizations: National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation
 Research organizations: Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Trade and
Investment Knowledge Management Hub of the Asian Institute of Management.
 Private Sector: Bank of the Philippine Islands branches and regional office
 Document Review
 Website information

• Written survey questionnaire of HFH
• Key informant interview
• Focus group discussion
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Key Highlights/findings/gaps and issues: Property
Rights
• Salient information on the national level property rights indicator survey
▫ Women and men have equal rights to land and housing ownership;
▫ Indigenous Property Rights Act: Land rights for the indigenous or tribal population is existing in the country;
▫ Long term lease of the land for use as settlement for those in condominiums
• Salient information on the two city sample property rights indicator survey
▫ No indigenous population in the two cities
▫ Land titling and documentation of ownership transfer have been computerized with on-line status of process check
▫ Urban poor resettlement program is on going in Muntinlupa city, led by the City Urban Poor Affairs Office.
▫ The last resettlement program in Tarlac City was done in 2002
▫ No long term lease of the land for settlement among poor households
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Key Highlights/findings/gaps and issues: Financing
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Key Highlights/findings/gaps and issues: Finance
• Cooperatives
▫ Employee Cooperative in St. Louis University in Baguio City as the model
▫ With this model, Muntinlupa City Cooperative Office attempted and failed to launch a government employee cooperative housing; no initiatives from cooperatives in the area
▫ No attempts at cooperative housing in Tarlac City government or with the different cooperatives in the area
• Mortgage securities
▫ PHP2.2B bond issued in 2009 but no secondary mortgage market
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Key Highlights/findings/gaps and issues: Subsidies
• Four supply side subsidies
▫ Interest rate for low cost or resettlement type of housing and land acquisition
▫ Production of housing units for resettlements
▫ Administrative cost of national and sub national government in the service delivery of resettlement housing
▫ Losses due to non repayment of loans by the urban poor and employees in the low income category
• No subsidies on the demand side, that is, there is no direct cash transfer from national or sub national government agencies to the beneficiaries of the housing in resettlement programs
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Key Highlights/findings/gaps and issues:
Infrastructure Support in the Two Cities
• Basic services for slum upgrading are regular feature of annual investment programs of the city government
• These investment programs are anchored on the development plan of the city
• These investment programs can be financed by the city and can be complement by financing from national government and even multi-lateral donor financing
• These basic services includes
▫ the provision of utilities , notably water and electricity,
▫ the periodic improvement of roads and other primary road support infrastructure that increases proximity to public transport
▫ the access to basic health care
▫ periodic collection of solid waste
▫ basic education
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Key Highlights/findings/gaps and issues:
Infrastructure
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Key Highlights/findings/gaps and issues:
Regulatory Regime in the Two City Sample
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Key Highlights/findings/gaps and issues:
Lessons from the Southville Resettlement, Municipality of Calauan, Province of Laguna
• Off site resettlement should consider productive employment that is near the area as without such, re-inmigration to cities takes place
• Resettlement planning should be done by both local and national government agencies, considering social services delivery and the corresponding fiscal adjustment to the budget appropriation of the local government
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Opportunities and Recommendations for consideration by HFH Philippines
• Since the housing policy in the Philippines is very much driven by the city government, it is best to work closely with them:
▫ For advocacies on local housing policy, the locally organized housing board is the venue for discussion on fiscal policies related to plans, budget appropriations, implementation support and provision of basic services.
▫ For advocacies on urban settlements patterns and the fiscal support for both plans and annual budgets, the locally organized and mandated development council in the city is the venue for discussion and lobby.
• National level housing policy is driven by resettlement needs for those residing in areas that are affected by projects of the national government, with limited budget support and very much dependent on infrastructure and social services provisions from sub national organizations.
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