HOUSE Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez has filed a bill seeking to make the National Housing Authority (NHA) a permanent agency with modified functions to address the country’s need for low-cost homes.
“In order to adapt to the changing conditions in the housing industry and address the current problems of the agency, there is a need to expand, strengthen, and reorganize the NHA as well as extend its corporate term,” states part of House Bill No. 8156.
The measure seeks to give the NHA, whose corporate term is set to expire in 2025, “perpetual existence unless otherwise terminated or abolished.”
Mr. Romualdez said the proposed law will help the NHA be innovative and provide alternative solutions in addressing the housing needs of informal settler families, low-income households, and the vulnerable sector.
It would also help develop, sustain, and reinforce the government’s partnership with local government units and the private sector, he added.
The NHA was created in 1975 under Presidential Decree No. 757, during the rule of the incumbent president’s father and namesake, Ferdinand E. Marcos, to develop public housing.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. announced last year that he aims to construct at least one million housing units annually during his six-year term. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz