The hourly TV ads telling everyone to avail of housing loans from Pag-IBIG Fund have another purpose apart from displaying the mug of Vice President Noli De Castro. That is to hide the massive failure of the government's housing program, a task given to De Castro who sits as the Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).
If you didn't know, the HUDCC is comprised of the heads of Key Shelter Agencies (KSAs), namely: the National Housing Authority (NHA), the Home Guaranty Corporation (HGC), the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (HGC), and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB); The Heads of three (3) funding agencies, namely: the Social Security System (SSS), the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF); The Heads of seven (7) government support agencies, which include the Presidential Management Staff (PMS), the Department of Finance (DOF), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA); and Two (2) private sector representatives from Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and private developers.
As HUDCC Chairman, Vice President Noli De Castro has the complete run of everything that has to do with providing homes for the poor as well as providing low income families with a means to avail home loans. He has the financing agencies to fund the housing projects and he has the implementing arms of housing programs as well. With massive powers at his disposal, one wonders why a large number of working people still do not own their own homes.
Today, Senator Richard J. Gordon (Ind.) was led to conclude that the government has terribly failed to implement an effective housing policy. This, apparently, resulted in alleged housing-loan auction anomaly currently being investigated in the Senate.
Vice President Noli de Castro himself admitted that the housing program is a failure under the unified housing loan program.
Gordon laid bare the state of the government's housing program, saying that “The record is very clear. You lend money and people do not pay under a unified housing scheme. If it is not a success, if it is not paying then you are depriving the government. Pinapabayaan natin na hindi makabayad ang mga taong ito. Hindi nababawi ang capital, hindi napapaikot para makapagpautang pa sa mas maraming tao. Ilan lang ang nagpapasasa dun sa pinahihiram ninyong bahay. Iyan ang nakikita kong sitwasyon dito.“That is why I consider the housing policy of the government an abysmal failure. Mabuti nakita ngayon na malaki pala ang bukol (housing loan problem) na ito, lalaki pa ang bukol na ito, magiging cancer, eventually malulugi tayo. That is why walang nangyayari sa pabahay natin.”Gordon also cited that the housing programs of by-gone years had proven to be more successful.“In the 1950’s, in the 1930’s, gumawa ang gobyerno ng mga Roxas District, Quezon City, Quirino District, Pandacan, Project 1 to 8. Mukhang nakabayad lahat iyan. That is a successful housing program.“Ngayon, nagpapautang tayo, meron pa tayong socialized housing, merong low-cost housing pero hindi tayo makasingil. Something is wrong with the housing policy. We have to have a better policy and you in the executive should give us better policies here.”
The blue ribbon panel and the committee on urban planning, housing and resettlement are jointly conducting a further review of a joint-venture deal between the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporations (NHMFC) and Deutsche Bank Real Estate Global Opportunities (Global) amid concerns over violations in the auction of delinquent loans affecting 53,000 families listed as beneficiaries of a government-backed housing program.
But, why am I picking on this bit of news? Ask me where the Blue Ribbon investigation will lead to? Ask me, which real estate corporation earns BILLIONS from government housing loans and home loans from Pag-IBIG Fund? Ask me about the Wednesday Club!
2 comments:
tell me about the wednesday club.
De Castro belongs to the “Wednesday Club” which has as its members Villar, Senators Joker Arroyo, Francis Pangilinan and National Economic Development Authority (Neda) chief Ralph Recto.
The Wednesday Club was formed in 2001 when all four of them, all congressmen, ran as adminis-tration senatorial bets and won, while De Castro, a radio-TV anchor, ran and under the banner of the opposition as senator. The four adopted him as their club member.
-- from http://2010.pinoyvote.info/election-news/top-stories/erap-2010-run-on-if-single-minority-bet-impossible/
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