The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) on Monday engaged non-governmental organizations (NGOs) among various stakeholders to improve public participation in the government’s Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH) housing program.
Housing czar Jose Ramon Aliling initiated a dialogue with former Metro Manila commissioner for planning and former UN-Habitat Urban Management Programme (UMP) Asia Pacific regional director Nathaniel von Einsiedel, former Ateneo Institute of Philippine Culture director Mary Racelis, LinkBuild’s Ana Oliveros, JJ Carroll Institute of Church and Social Issues’ Urban Poverty and Governance Program consultant Anna Marie Karaos, Joly Homes Foundation’s Vince Eugenio, and Federation for the Development of the Urban Poor executive director Maricel Genzola.
The discussion tackled the modalities being introduced by the DHSUD Secretary to the expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PHX) Program and the promotion of people-centric housing programs.
“That is the exact directive of the President for us to be more inclusive and people-centric, to cover the mandated beneficiaries of government housing programs, which are the poorest of the poor and those in the lower income deciles,” Aliling said.
“That is why we have expanded the 4PH to include all feasible modalities like rental housing, horizontal developments, and now under study — incremental housing. We will continue to expand to other modalities to expand our beneficiaries,” he added.
Stakeholders celebrated the readiness of the current DHSUD leadership to their inputs, especially NGOs, as they raised additional schemes that can be considered under 4PHX, such as the community mortgage program and high-density housing.
“While we are already pursuing those modalities, rest assured that DHSUD welcomes inputs from all stakeholders for the betterment of our programs, especially those that call for active participation from our beneficiaries from the project conceptualization up to execution,” Aliling concluded.
