Budget favoring vices over housing?

Vice and gambling activities like horseracing and boxing appear to be more important than housing concerns, a Mindanao congressman said yesterday.

Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Lakas, Surigao del Norte) said his impression is based on the amounts the Department of Budget and Management set aside in the 2002 budget for horseracing and boxing agencies and the de facto housing department, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).

The council, chaired by housing czar Michael Defensor, is allocating P56.5 million for next year.

"The HUDCC grovels at the bottom of the budgetary totem pole," Barbers said.

He said the combined budgets of agencies for horseracing (Philippine Racing Commission, P38.6 million) and boxing (Games and Amusement Board, P42.7 million) are higher than that of Defensor’s council.

He added that the House of Representatives, in approving the proposed P781 billion 2002 budget, did not augment the housing agency’s DBM-recommended allotment.

Although Defensor’s coordinating council will get P56.5 million only, offices under it will receive as much as P1 billion.

The Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board has a proposed budget of P155.2 million, the National Housing Authority and the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. will each receive a P500 million subsidy, and the Home Guaranty Corp. will get P1 billion.

Together, the council and agencies attached to it will have about P2.2 billion in 2002.

Barbers said that amount won’t be enough for Defensor’s agencies to effectively tackle the housing problem.

"The country is faced with a daunting shelter backlog of 3.8 million units. It will take us decades to wipe this out unless more money is infused in this sector," he said.