FELIXBERTO Bustos, president of National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC), is backing the move of Negros Occidental Third District Representative Alfredo Benitez and Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito for the creation of the National Housing Department.
Bustos said the creation of the housing department would give the secretary or head more teeth to unite and avoid duplication of government agencies that cater to the housing program of the country.
At present, there is about six million housing backlog in the country that needs to be addressed to.
Bustos was in the city on Friday for the housing stakeholders forum held at L' Fisher Hotel with the theme, “Postering Partnership and Funding Opportunities for Affordable Housing.”
The Congress has approved House Bill (HB) 6775, or An Act Creating the Department of Human Settles and Urban Development (DHUD).
Benitez, who chairs the House committee on housing and urban development, said the bill would address the worsening housing problem in the country.
The measure also aims to establish an efficient, effective, comprehensive and integrated national and local housing and urban development program.
It also seeks to rationalize and coordinate the functions and powers of the NHMFC, Home Guaranty Corporation (HGC), Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) and the National Housing Authority (NHA).
The bill calls for the establishment of the DHUD by merging the Housing Urban Development Coordinating Council and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.
According to Benitez, the current Republic Act 7279, or the Urban Development Housing Act, has apparently overlooked the enormous demands in the housing sector.
The measure said the department shall be headed by a secretary and assisted by four undersecretaries and four assistant secretaries to be appointed by the President.
The bill added functions of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board shall be transferred to the Human Settlements Adjudication Commission (HSAC) that will be created under this act.
It also said the NHA, HGC, NHMFC, HDMF, Social Housing Finance Corp. and HSAC are hereby attached to the housing department for policy and program coordination, monitoring, and evaluation. All these agencies shall continue to function according to existing laws and their respective charters.