‘COA should look into P5 billion housing funds’

Senator Risa Hontiveros urged the Commission on Audit (COA) to track the more than P5 billion collected from private housing developers in compliance with the Urban Development and Housing Act.

The senator noted that out of the P5 billion—the total in escrow accounts under various names—P1.8 billion was reportedly spent by former Usec. Christopher Lloyd Lao during his 2018-2019 stint in the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), and hundreds of millions could not be accounted for when he left HLURB.

“I urge COA to look into this matter and immediately, and I urge DHSUD to cooperate without hesitation,” Hontiveros said.

Hontiveros said when Lao was serving as CEO and commissioner of the HLURB, there was a “scheme” in which private developers gave a certain amount or “fee”  for an express-lane alternative to their compliance with the requirements of the Balanced Housing Development Program Law.  Under the said law, developers are mandated to allot a portion of their projects to socialized housing.

She expressed her confusion over the fact that Lao was able to spend P1.8 billion “without the formal and documented knowledge of the agency.”

According to Hontiveros, the scheme may also have been against the law as the funds raised and placed in escrow accounts with banks are only one-fourth of the amount stated in the law.

If the law had been followed, the private sector would have created up to P20 billion in socialized housing units and this would have been a huge addition to the very small budget provided by the Department of Budget to housing agencies.