Local Housing Boards: Another Bureaucratic Layer?

Among the many bills on housing and real estate pending in the legislature are several versions mandating the creation of Local Housing Boards in all cities, including first to third class municipalities, all over the country. To say the least, real estate developers are often left alone to contend with the tedious and expensive process […]

House Heeds Call vs. BIR Rulings on Mass Housing

Congressman Rodolfo G. Valencia, Chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development, filed House Resolution No. 1823. The proposed measure seeks to investigate, in aid of legislation, the perceived “onerous” additional requirement for revenue rulings imposed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue on housing developers that have “led to adverse outcomes” in the […]

National Land Use Act

Among the many bills on housing and real estate pending in the legislature is House Bill No. 6545 or the proposed National Land Use and Management Act (NLUMA). In the last 21st CREBA National Convention in Palawan, Cong. Rodolfo G. Valencia reported that the current version of the bill, principally authored by Cong. Kaka Bag-ao, […]

Energy Beyond Reach

Last year, our country’s legislators have acknowledged that the Philippines now holds the infamous record of having the highest residential energy rates not only among its closest Asian neighbors, but possibly in the entire world.  Data from the Department of Energy (DoE) reveal that the Philippines has overtaken Japan, now the 4th largest economy in […]

Quo Vadis? Dept. of Housing Bill after 20 years

The success of any government housing program depends on a well-planned and holistic consideration of the various factors that should come into play in order to ensure effective and sustained program implementation.   It calls for an integrated system that brings together the different components of a complete machinery that could run the engine of housing […]

Urban Planning and the Environment

The calamities of the recent weeks brought about by heavy monsoon rains wrought considerable havoc to lives, properties and industries which bring back painful memories of the infamous typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng of 2009. Some say it was a little better this time because people had better ideas on what to do and how and […]