Affordable and Quality Housing - Engr. Bobby Gavina

An affordable and quality urban housing can be achieved if lawmakers will pass a separate agency which focused only on housing problem. Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Senior Technical Consultant Engineer Roberto ”Bobby” Gavina said this can all be attained thru the creation of a Housing Department aimed to solve the decade-long housing problem in the country. “The creation of new agency to be called as Department of Housing can also help our farmers build and own their respective houses despite their meager income,“ said Gavina. Before Gavina enter in government service, he was engaged in their family business as housing developer for 27 years. He was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to head the resettlement program of the informal settlers under the Department of Interior Local Government (DILG) before he was transferred to DAR.

Gavina said with government support, the farmers will remain in their provinces and at the same time solve the problem of informal settlers in the rural areas. He said the Philippines has an estimated 1.6 million urban areas, in Metro Manila alone there are more than 584,000 informal settlers in 2010 and rest are from other regions in the country. Gavina is optimistic that the Senate will pass on 3rd and final reading next week a proposed law creating the Department of Housing. "It is high time that we rationalize all these agencies and put them together under a Housing Department. This will make coordination easier, and make us closer to our target of providing more homes to our people," according to Senator Sonny Angara, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Finance.

The Philippines is the only country that spends the least for housing of their citizens-- even less than half a percent of our GDP. "We ought to invest properly and strategically. Construction and housing are in fact the key engines of job creation in the country, yet it sorely lacks attention of government. It is imperative to create a Housing Department that will be at the forefront of this effort to assist in providing homes for our people," Angara added.### #DU30 #Malacañang #Investors #RobertoGavina #NHA #UrbanPoor #InformalSettlers #Construction #ISFHousingProject