VP Binay confident HUDCC will pass performance audit

Three days after resigning from the Aquino Cabinet, Vice President Jejomar Binay officially declared himself as head of the opposition in the 2016 national and local elections during a press conference on Wednesday (June 24, 2015) at his office in the Coconut Palace, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Complex, Pasay City. (Avito C. Dalan / PNA)

MANILA — Vice President Jejomar Binay has expressed optimism that the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) under his term will pass the scrutiny of auditing bodies.

Binay made this reaction after some senators called for a performance audit of HUDCC and other government housing institutions.

Binay said under his term as HUDCC chair, the housing agencies implemented projects amounting to almost PhP270 billion with no adverse findings from the Commission on Audit (COA).

“The record and performance of the housing agencies under my watch will stand scrutiny from a fair and unbiased body,” Binay said.

“From July 2010 to April 2015, the government’s key shelter agencies provided house and/or lot packages to 792,014 families valued at PhP268.826 billion. Not one project was flagged by COA for any irregularity,” he added.

Binay said the accomplishments of the housing sector, specifically the the National Housing Authority (NHA), Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) and Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), were made possible through the institution of various policy reforms and implementation of pro-poor housing programs of the three shelter agencies.

With Binay as housing czar, the NHA distributed some 446,695 units under its relocation programs for informal settler families (ISFs) living along danger areas and those affected by infrastructure projects in Metro Manila, as well as those residing in danger areas in nearby provinces.

“These include the 56,683 units constructed under the NHA’s housing projects for members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and Bureau of Fire Protection,” he said.

Binay said Pag-IBIG Fund’s End User Financing also provided a total loan amount of PhP182 billion benefitting 254,201 families.

“The loans were used primarily for house and lot packages, lot or house acquisition, or housing construction,” Binay said.

The Vice President added that the amount did not include short-term loans (STLs), multi-purpose loans (MPLs) and calamity loans (CLs), which could be used for purposes other than housing.

“Of the total STLs, PhP188.5 billion were loans under the MPLs for 9.4 million applications, while PhP29.8 billion for 1.7 million members were under the CL program,” he said.

Binay said in addition to Pag-IBIG Fund’s housing accomplishments, the Fund also increased its membership and provided better services to its members.

“Since July 2010, the Fund has registered 7.13 million new members, which is 175 percent higher or more than double the 2.59 million members registered from July 2004 to June 2010,” he said.

As of May 2015, Pag-IBIG membership has reached 15.3 million.