JDV drafts blue print for economic recovery

Speaker Jose de Venecia formulated yesterday a legislative blue print to back up the government’s economic recovery efforts.

He said the proposed of legislation would seek to capture large foreign investments and convert billions of pesos worth of "sleeping" domestic wealth into "performing assets to boost national productivity and create millions of jobs nationwide."

He added that the proposed legislative agenda would follow-up the pump-priming of the economy with the passage of the P780-billion national budget.

"We have to follow this up with other vital pieces of legislation so we can mobilize the country’s internal assets to push productivity upwards," De Venecia said.

He revealed that the legislative agenda includes approval of the expansion of the housing law and the creation of a Department of Housing, the proposed Securitization Law, and the creation of a Special Purpose Asset Vehicle (SPAV).

He explained that the SPAV would allow the government to acquire lands idling in the hands of the country’s commercial banks.

"Through the SPAV, government would be able to buy out such idle real estate and use them for mass housing," he said.

Early last week, De Venecia, together with Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Rafael Buenaventura, announced the decision of a US financial giant, the Lehman Brothers, to infuse some $1 billion through the Philippine Economic Recovery Fund.

The incoming fresh money, according to De Venecia, would be used to pursue, among other things, President Arroyo’s massive socialized housing program, using non-performing foreclosed lands owned by private commercial banks, suited for mass housing. – Efren Danao