Getting their act together

More than 4,000 individual and corporate members make up the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Association Inc. (CREBA). In real sense, they join CREBA to make a collective effort to do business with the government and other allied institutions and entities for the advancement of the real estate industry and the national housing program.

Certainly, it is not an easy task.

Trade associations and advocacy or lobby groups like CREBA know that doing business with government is a complicated matter considering that vast bureaucracies and changing rules and regulations. It takes more than lip service to make certain that causes, interests and problems are brought to the attention of the concerned properly and promptly. It takes more than publicity write-ups and position papers to ensure that the voice of the industry is heard. The most important thing for a huge organization like CREBA to be able to get things done is to get its act together.

HLURB’s IRRs

One gratifying development along this line is the positive response of Secretary Mike Defensor and the full-time commissioners of the Housing and Land Regulatory Board (HLURB) to CREBA’s position on the revised implementing rules and regulations (IRRs) on PD 957 and BP 220.

Meeting en banc, the commissioners are expected to announce anytime now the results of their deliberation on a draft resolution (90 percent of which are comments and proposals from CREBA).

Pre-convention seminars

A series of seminar-workshops on critical advocacy areas usher in the forthcoming CREBA-HUDCC National Convention through the efforts of national convention chair Flor Ofrecio and pre-convention committee chair Sammy Valencia. One topic that drew serious attention was wastewater management. Resource speakers came from the Water Environment Association of the Phils. (WEAP).