Pacquiao's Housing Promise is Actually a Constitutional Mandate

Why are so many Filipinos ignorant of the Constitution? It is one thing to be dismissive of it and call it nothing but a piece of paper like President Duterte. But it is a whole other thing to be ignorant of its contents and consider oneself an informed citizen. Take this one instance. This week Manny Pacquiao said if he were elected President in 2022 he would build subdivisions for squatters.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/06/13/latest-stories/pacquiao-to-build-subdivisions-for-squatters/1803105

Senator Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao vowed to end squatting if he becomes President.

He pledged to build subdivisions and buildings for squatters.

"No one will live in a squatter (area) especially in Metro Manila," the boxing champ said in a virtual interview with broadcaster Anthony Taberna in his YouTube channel "Tune in with TUNYING" on Sunday evening.

People across the internet, mostly the DDS crowd, have been guffawing and mocking Manny over this proposal. Take Thinking Pinoy's snarky reply as an example.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=353133249547614&set=a.283010229893250&type=3

Dear Senator Manny Pacquiao, 

Good day. 

May I have a copy of the feasibility study that your office must have had conducted prior to issuing this statement?

If possible, can you include a computation of our prospective budget deficit should this be implemented, along with the possible sources of financing, and its ramifications on our country's creditworthiness, in the event that we might have to do some debt restructuring after a few years?

I bet you already took into consideration present realities, including the ongoing economic recession. 

And while we're at it, can you identify the areas where most of the informal settlers will be situated? I have seen your SALN and I'm certain that you can't pay for the requisite land yourself, so I want to know which areas you may exercise the government's Power of Eminent Domain, and how you will alienate that land in accordance with the law?

Sabi mo kasi, "subdivision" e, unless you plan to relocate informal settlers in NCR to some backwater. 

You can send a soft copy of the said proposal to tp(at)ThinkingPinoy.net

Sincerely,

TP

Is RJ Nieto really so stupid as to think that Pacquiao would pay for this project out of his own pocket? Granted those are good questions to ask about such a project so why not ask the government which is tasked with doing this very thing?  It appears that none of Manny's detractors are aware of that fact. It is in article 13, section 9 of the Constitution.

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/

SECTION 9. The State shall, by law, and for the common good, undertake, in cooperation with the public sector, a continuing program of urban land reform and housing which will make available at affordable cost decent housing and basic services to underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban centers and resettlements areas. It shall also promote adequate employment opportunities to such citizens. In the implementation of such program the State shall respect the rights of small property owners.

This mandate is currently being carried out by the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD). The NHA was organized  in 1975 but it is the descendant of the People's Homesite Corporation (PHC) which was founded in 1938.

The National Housing Authority (NHA) is the sole national agency mandated to engage in housing production for low income families. It traces its roots to the People’s Homesite Corporation (PHC), the first government housing agency established on 14 October 1938 and to the National Housing Commission (NHC) which was created seven years later, on 17 September 1945. These two agencies, the PHC and NHC, were eventually merged on 4 October 1947 into the People’s Homesite and Housing Corporation (PHHC). 

In the years that followed, six (6) more housing agencies were created to respond to separate and distinct shelter requirements, namely: the Presidential Assistant on Housing and Resettlement Agency (PAHRA); the Tondo Foreshore Development Authority (TFDA); the Central Institute for the Training and Relocation of Urban Squatters (CITRUS); the Presidential Committee for Housing and Urban Resettlement (PRECHUR); the Sapang Palay Development Committee (SPDC); the Inter-Agency task Force to Undertake the Relocation of Families in Barrio Nabacaan, Villanueva, Misamis Oriental. 

Eventually, on 15 October 1975, the National Housing Authority was organized as a government-owned and controlled corporation, by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 757 dated 31 July 1975. All other housing agencies were abolished by the said decree. The NHA took over and integrated the functions of the abolished agencies- the PHHC and the six (6) other housing agencies. The creation of the NHA is the second attempt of the government to integrated all housing efforts under a single agency, twenty-eight years after the merger under the PHHC. 

https://nha.gov.ph/about/history/

Since 1938 the government has been tasked with hosting the people. How has that gone so far? Not every good as there are still squatters and homeless people everywhere. Squatters live in the most filthy of conditions in "houses" that go up in flames the moment a faulty electrical wire sparks. Resettlement areas set up by the government are not much better. The causes of this are nothing to get into in this article. The point here is that those who are descrying Manny's plan of housing everyone is completely unaware that such a project is exactly within the purview of the government.  It is their constitutional mandate. It would appear that way too many Filipinos are ignorant of their country's own constitution.