NEARLY 600 real estate projects by private developers have been found to violate the Balanced Housing Development Program (BHDP) requirement under Republic Act 10884, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) said.
The department said the violations were discovered during its ongoing Zero Backlog Program, which reviews pending regulatory cases in all regional offices.
‘We intend to correct this soonest to enhance production of socialized housing projects for the benefit of the underprivileged Filipinos,’ Housing Secretary Jose Ramon Aliling said. ‘We are mandated to implement the law, and we will do just that.’
Republic Act 10884, which amended the Urban Development and Housing Act (Republic Act 7279), requires developers of new residential subdivisions and condominium projects to allocate a portion of their developments for socialized housing.
This is about 15 percent for subdivisions and 5 percent for condominiums, or to comply through approved alternative schemes.
Moreover, these may include developing socialized housing in another site, entering joint ventures with accredited entities, or contributing to a socialized housing fund under the incentivized compliance mechanism.
The law imposes penalties for violations, including half a million fine for first offenses and cease-and-desist orders (CDO) against non-compliant projects.
‘In compliance with the law and existing rules, we already started sending orders against these developers for them to start complying,’ Aliling said.
On average, the erring developers face around P600,000 in penalties, aside from the CDOs that halt the sale of their housing units until the violations are corrected and the orders are lifted.
DHSUD undersecretary Sharon Faith Paquiz said the cases were uncovered through a backtrack review of regulatory backlogs across the agency’s regional offices.
‘We need to strictly implement the law and our guidelines. We will continue to issue necessary orders to the concerned developers for their compliance,’ Paquiz said.
Aliling said he plans to meet with leaders of the country’s major real estate developers for a dialogue on strengthening compliance with the law and ensuring the production of socialized housing units nationwide.