Government has P30B for Pag-Ibig housing

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga – Government housing czar Vice President Noli de Castro said the government has P30 billion for low cost housing loans that could be accessed through the Pag-Ibig Fund.

This, even as De Castro urged the private sector to support the government’s program to provide “decent but affordable” houses to ordinary folk receiving modest income. He said that the cost of housing should be at par with apartment rental rates to encourage families to apply for low-cost housing instead of perpetually renting apartments. Anyone should own their own homes by just saving a small portion of their income, he said.

De Castro, who is chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) was guest here Tuesday in the launching of a low-cost housing project to be undertaken by Fiesta Committees Inc.-Hausland, headed by its president Willy Tan who was among the recipients recently of the Most Enterprising Entrepreneur Awards of the Center for Entrepreneurship.

Tan told De Castro that FCI-Hausland plans to build some 6,000 “decent” low-cost houses for the so-called working class in Central Luzon, with monthly amortization as low as P1,800. Tan said FCI is ready to face the government’s challenge to provide some 3.8 million houses for the homeless, initially in some “preferred sites” in Central Luzon. “The government needs support to achieve the difficult task and we are giving it,” Tan said.

De Castro said the government, through the Pag-Ibig Funds, has alloted P30 billion for housing loan assistance. He also said President Arroyo had tasked him to help provide houses not only to government workers, but also to workers in the private sector. He said that the government encourages private firms to help provide “decent but affordable houses” to ordinary income earners.

The FCI-Hausland housing project sites are in Barangay Manibaug, Porac and in Barangay Dapdap, Mabalacat – all in Pampanga. The two others are in Matatalaib, Tarlac and in New Cabalan, Olongapo City.

The FCI-Hausland will offer decent houses and lots for as low P1,800 as monthly amortization per unit. FCI officials said they aim to engage the individual’s earnings as low as P8,000 to P15,000 a month by providing them house and lot packages ranging from P300,000 to P500,000.

Depending on the kind of house and lot package, the monthly amortization could range from P1,798.65 to P3,326.51.