On Manny Villar’s low-cost housing program: black is white and greed is good
I’ve worked in the public housing industry in the United States for many years, overseeing housing investment tax credits and low income housing programs, which is why I would love to see a similar type of program be introduced in the Philippines, if there isn’t any in place. I’ve searched some government websites but I could not seem to find any information about affordable housing programs in the Philippines, I guess affordable housing programs are still called “squatters”. But even that is no longer affordable. You get evicted anytime. Popular joke in Manila is that, they will just burn down your place to the ground, to make you leave. Just look at this haunting picture:
Source: The miserable plight of the urban poor
During the course of the ongoing presidential campaign, I’ve heard Manny Villar many times talked about his accomplishments in the low-cost housing program. I’m confused – is there a low-cost housing program in the Philippines or are these just for-profit private real estate companies strategically focused on providing simply, “low-cost” housing? Because if there is, I live in Pasig and I could tell you that the squatters along the sides of Floodway do not look like low-cost housing program to me.
Then, I ran into this article written by Mr. Antonio Hidalgo. Here are the excerpts:
True, Villar built many thousands of low-cost houses over more than a decade under the Unified Home Lending Scheme (UHLP) of the socialized housing law (E.O. 90) that he and his CREBA minions drafted and got Cory to sign in 1986, during her emergency government when she had legislative powers, by promising the pie in the sky of solving homelessness in the Philippines once and for all. But he did this to rake in billions in profits at the expense of the government, not out of a concern for the homeless poor.
Look at the results of Villar’s thousands of houses under the UHLP from 1986 to 1997 (when we reformed the UHLP to prevent Villar from bankrupting the country). Villar became a billionaire. NHMFC, the financial coordinator of the program, was bankrupted. The funders (SSS, GSIS, Pag-Ibig) were stuck with billions in bad home mortgages covering Villar’s houses and flirted with bankruptcy for a while. Eventually, these bad mortgages had to be covered by the national government using its tax revenues (including your taxes and mine) because the funders were covered by a sovereign guarantee. Subsequently (beginning 2003 or 2004), the losses on the bad mortgages had to be written off by selling them through special purpose asset vehicles (SPAVS) at a fraction of their face value.
Meanwhile, look around you. Nearly half of the residents of Metro Manila still live in squatter areas!
Interesting stuff huh?
Read the complete article here: Villar’s “Homelessness” Pie-In-The-Sky Milked the Government of Millions
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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.
Have you heard about Habitat for Humanity? So far, it’s the only low cost housing i’ve known yet it the program is not from the government itself.
yeah i know Habitat for Humanity, i’m a member of that here in the Northeast. when i was in bus school, we did about 3 or 4 weekends, 2 houses in Bristol. i know there’s Habitat for Humanity in Manila but that’s not a gov’t project. di ba ki Carter yan.
i mean – founded ni carter?
carter nga yan, non profit group yan. even the gawad kalinga, mas madami pang bahay para sa mahirap na nagawa. teka, why am i not surprised about this story? hmmm
WALA NAMAN LOW COST HOUSING NA GINAWA SI VILLAR AH. ANONG SINASABI NYA NA LOW COST HOUSING BAKA HE IS REFERING TO HIS PALMERA SUBSTANDARD HOMES NA BINEBENTA NYA NG MURA SA OFW ACTUALLY DI PALA MURA ANG 1 MILLION.
@fehm lopez,
I agree! Kaya pleassee lang, yung political ads niyang may sinasabing:
“Tutulungan niyang magka-bahay tayo!”
What a big lie!
“Meanwhile, look around you. Nearly half of the residents of Metro Manila still live in squatter areas!”
May kasabihan po tayo, “Aanhin ko pa ang bahay, pwede naman sa ilalim ng tulay.”
*bow*
true! hahaha! do you remember the – it was either Dateline NBC or 20/20 where they featured these city dwellers in manila under the bridge and how they evacuate when it rains, then pako uli mga bahay after the rains. i thought that was hilarious – and sorry for the word – but it was. my officemates saw that episode and i was the joke of the week that time!
The term low-cost housing is just a come-on, because for the underpaid, it is high-maintenance utang. It takes a lifetime to pay. Nakabaon ka na sa hukay, binabayaran mo pa *sigh
low cost housing means. mura siya (mura para sa developer)..
it does not say na hindi niya pwedeng ibenta ng mahal.
merry chrismass po sa inyo sir.isa po ako sa mga millions OFW d2 po ako sa HK,sir bilang mamayan po,wala na po kaming hinangad kundi mapabuti ang pamumuhay,but b-coz wala nga pong upportunity satin,nakikipagsapalaran po kmi sa ibang bansa.na talaga namang puno ng mga kapagsubukan,minsan madaming panglalait at discriminasyon.sir nais ko po sanang magtanong sa inyong mabuting opisina,kung pano po makapag subscribe sa inyo pong low cost pabahay?plss po,nais ko pong magkaroon na ng sariling bahay upang may resulta naman ang pagod mula sa ibang bansa.at para po hindi na kmi palaging nakikitira lang.may 2 anak po ak,at hiwalay sa asawa,salamat po.hangad ko po ang inyong agarang impormasyon kung pano po ang gagawin ko.salamat po.Almighty Father Bless U.