THE Chamber of Real Estate & Builders Associations Inc. (CREBA) has appealed to government to allow the resumption of construction activities.
The group warned the effects of the current global economic slowdown, particularly to overseas Filipino workers and the foreign markets, is so enormous it would take years until housing and real estate, can fully recover.
CREBA said the continuity of construction activities will greatly stimulate the economy by positively affecting upstream and downstream industries, including employment and tax generation.
CREBA also appealed for a 3 percent cap on bank rates, freezing of real property tax levels by local government units for at least six months, and maintaining the value-added tax-free status of house and lot purchases up to P3.2 million which the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law extinguishes come January 2021.
CREBA which is composed of top property builders suggested the adoption of what they called a “productive work-site quarantine” in construction sites in a letter to the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and other agencies involved in the national action plan under Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Law.
Under “productive work-site quarantine,” re-activated project sites will strictly observe all relevant lockdown protocols on mobility and social distancing. Workers will stay at safe and clean on-site barracks with all necessary health measures duly monitored by competent health workers.
This way, CREBA said, reinstatement of the workers to gainful employment will help alleviate direct government support in the biggest labor sector.
The Philippine Statistics Authority estimates the construction workforce to be about 4 million, with millions more required to man new construction projects under the Build, Build, Build Program.
CREBA said displaced and repatriated skilled overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) can also be deployed locally.
The group said thousands of skilled construction workers are either stranded on project sites away from their families or completely jobless, including repatriated OFWs.
It said citing the quarantine period as an opportunity to fast track critical government projects.
