No housing funding for Taal evacuees below 2021 budget: housing agency

MANILA – The National Housing Authority said Wednesday it has no funds for the rehabilitation of houses damaged during the Taal eruption earlier this year.

Of the NHA’s proposed P63.70 billion budget for 2021, only P2 billion was allowed to be included in the national government’s P4.5 trillion spending bill, the agency said during budget deliberations in the Senate.

“In 2020 and 2021 we have not received any allocation for Taal,” NHA General Manager Marcelino Escalada, Jr. told senators when asked about housing units for those displaced by the rumbling of the dormant volcano.

“We are in a dilemma as to the source of the fund,” he said.

There are at least 2,600 totally damaged homes near the Taal volcano, while another 14,565 were partially damaged, according to data from the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).

“We were supposed to receive one billion pesos from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), but so far we have not received it yet,” Escalada said.

To remedy the funding problem, the NHA allowed the Taal evacuees to be included on the beneficiary list of existing housing programs, he said.

At least 600 evacuees have “decided to relocate to Ibaan, Batangas,” while 2,200 families will be resettled in the same municipalities, said DHSUD secretary Eduardo Del Rosario.

While the NHA operates on a budget of P73 billion, most of the funds are already earmarked for other housing projects, Escalada said.

DHSUD has been asking Congress to increase its budget for 2021 by P12 billion, saying that only 5 percent of its proposed P76.19-B funding was included in the National Spending Program.

“It really needs help because of the meager budget allocated to it,” Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said, noting that the agency needs P30 billion a year to build 6.57 million homes in the coming years.

The government’s P9.5 billion intelligence and confidential funds are even higher than the 2021 DHSUD budget, Drilon said.

“Contrast that with a budget of P4 billion allocated to the housing sector … These show the priorities we face in this sector,” he said.

The Taal volcano eruption in January displaced 736,802 people and incurred P3.40 billion in infrastructure and agricultural damage in Batangas, Cavite and nearby areas.