HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Government Agencies Involved in Housing and Urban Development Programs

HUDCC – Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council

HUDCC was created through Executive Order no. 90. It is the highest policy-making and
coordinating office on shelter programs.

HGC – Home Guarantee Corporation (formerly Home Insurance Guarantee Corporation)

HGC mobilizes all necessary resources to broaden the capital base for the effective delivery of
housing and other related services, primarily for the low-income earners through a viable system
of credit insurance, mortgage guarantee, and securities.

HLURB – Housing & Land Use Regulatory Board (formerly Human Settlement Regulatory Commission)
HLURB is the sole regulatory for housing and land development. It ensures rational land use for
the equitable distribution and enjoyment of development benefits. It is charged with
encouraging greater private sector participation in low-cost housing through liberalization of
development standards, simplification of regulations, and decentralization of approvals for
permits and licenses. It extends comprehensive and productive planning assistance to provinces,
cities, and municipalities toward the formulation of Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUPs).
The HLURB is a national government agency tasked as the planning, regulatory and quasi-judicial body for
land use development and real estate and housing regulation. These roles are done via a triad of strategies
namely, policy development, planning and regulation.

NHA – National Housing Authority

The National Housing Authority is the sole government agency engaged in direct shelter
production focused on providing housing assistance to the lowest 30% of urban income-earners
through slum upgrading, squatter relocation, development of sites and services, and construction
of core housing units. In addition, it undertakes programs for the improvement of blighted
urban areas and provides technical assistance for private developers undertaking low-cost
housing projects.

NHMFC – National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation

The National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation is the major government home mortgage
institution. Its initial main function is to a viable home mortgage market, utilizing long-term
funds principally provided by the Social Security System, the Government Service Insurance
System, and the Home Development mutual Fund to purchase mortgages originated by both
public and private institutions that are within government-approved guidelines. It is also
charged with the development of a system that will attract private institutional funds into long-
term housing mortgages.

HDMF – Home Development Mutual Fund ( more commonly known as the Pag-Ibig Fund)
The Development Mutual Fund focuses on the administration of a nationwide provident fund for
the government’s housing program, and formulates other investment strategies relative to
housing as well as improve its collection efficiency.

Other Government Agencies Responsible for Housing Projects:

BIR – Bureau of Internal Revenue
BLISS – Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services
BSWM – Bureau of Soils and Water Management
CHR – Commission for Human Rights
DA – Department of Agriculture
DAP – Development Academy of the Philippines
DAR – Department of Agrarian Reform
DENR – Department of Environment and Natural Resources
DILG – Department of Interior and Local Government
DOE – Department of Education
DSWD – Department of Social Welfare and Development
EMB – Environment Management Bureau
LGU – Local Government Units
LMB – Land Management Bureau
NAMRIA – National Mapping and Resource Information Authority
NEDA – National Economic and Development Authority
NSO – National Statistics Office
PCUP – Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor
Laws Regarding Housing and Urban Development:

Republic Act 9266 - "The New Architecture Law”

Republic Act 7279 - "Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992"
Republic Act 9161 - "Rental Reform Act of 2002"
Presidential Decree 1267 - "Creating a National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC)"
Presidential Decree 1752 - "Amending the Act Creating the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF)"
Presidential Decree 757 - "An Act Creating the National Housing Authority (NHA)"
Presidential Decree 933 - "An Act Creating the Human Settlement Commission (HSC)"
Presidential Decree 1216 – “Law Defining ‘Open Space’ in Residential Subdivision” (Amendment to PD957)
Presidential Decree 1396 - "Human Settlement Regulatory Commission” (Amendment to PD933)
Republic Act 7835 - "Comprehensive and Integrated Shelter Financing Act of 1994”
Presidential Decree 957 -"Subdivision and Condominium Buyer’s Protective Decree”
Republic Act 4726 - "Condominium Law”
Batas Pambansa bilang 220 - "Standards for Socialized and Economic Housing”
Republic Act 8763 - "Creating the Home Guarantee Corporation” (renaming the HIGC)
Presidential Decree 772 - "Anti Squatting Law”
Republic Act 8368 - "An Act Decriminalizing Squatting”
Republic Act 6657 – “Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law”
Republic Act 7160 – “Local Government Code”
Act 496 – “Land Registration Act” (Amended by RA 440)
Executive Order no. 90 – “Designating HLURB as the regulatory body for housing and land development under
the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council”
Executive Order no. 419 – “Created the Task Force for Human Settlement (TFHS)”
Executive Order no. 648 – “Reorganizing the Human Settlements Regulatory Commission”

Other Related Laws:

Presidential Decrees no. 399, 815, 1216, 1344, and 517

Republic Act no. 6552
Letters of Instruction no. 713, 729, 833, and 935
Presidential Proclamation no. 1893 and 1967

Issues Regarding Housing and Urban Development:

Socio-Cultural Sustainability of Housing - As an important component of the built environment, housing has a
crucial role to play in the sustainable development of cities. The sustainability of housing development embraces the
environmental, social, cultural and economic aspects of housing, which intertwine with one another… …Social and
cultural sustainability diverge where "social well being" and "culture" respectively become the subjects of
sustainability.1

Government’s Role in Low-Cost Housing - Provision of affordable housing requires government intervention, and
the degree of such intervention needs to be defined. This is to ensure a balance in the roles/participation among
agencies/sectors involved in the housing program of the government. In the process of meeting the housing needs of
the people, the government must also focus on its ultimate objective of eventually empowering the people to enable
them to address their own housing needs.2

Under E) no. 90, the NHA is mandated as the sole government agency engaged in direct shelter production focused
on providing housing assistance to the lowest 30 percent of urban income-earners through slum upgrading, squatter
relocation, and development of sites and services and construction of core-housing units.

Affordability Issue – Based on a formal survey conducted by the government, up to 70% of the population is
unable to access even the cheapest formal financial housing package of Php 150,000.00; up to 80% of the
population will not be able to afford a finished socialized housing unit; Around 5 million families belonging to
the first three income deciles are best assisted by grants and/or programs of prominent housing NGOs such as
Gawad Kalinga and Habitat for Humanity. Cost-recoverable and interest-bearing government housing programs
such as NHA and CMP-NHMFC programs for the poor may cater to 40% of the population or 6.4M families
covering those from the fourth to seventh decile; Only 20% of the population, or only those falling within the
eighth to tenth deciles, can have access to formal housing finance packages.

Construction costs:
Socialized Core house P 3,750 per sq. m.
Socialized Finished Unit P 6,000 per sq. m.
Low / Economic package P10,000 per sq. m.

1
Rebecca Chiu, “Socio-Cultural Sustainability of Housing: A Conceptual Exploration”
2
NHA Audit Report (January 2001 – June 2002)