Senate urged to pass NHA charter extension bill

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AN administration lawmaker yesterday urged the Senate to immediately approve the House-approved bill seeking to extend by 25 years the corporate life of the National Housing Authority (NHA) before Congress adjourns session on Wednesday next week to give way to the official start of the campaign period for the May midterm elections.

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, one of the principal authors of House Bill (HB) No. 10172, made the appeal as he noted that the NHA’s charter is set to expire in July.

“I am appealing to our senators to consider a measure passed last year by the House of Representatives that will let the NHA continue undertaking its urban land reform and housing program that makes available affordable and decent housing facilities with the basic services to the underprivileged and homeless,” Villafuerte said in a statement.

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He said that once approved, the NHA will be able to continue pursuing its mandate for the past 50 years now to provide shelter to the lowest-income Filipino families in urban areas.

The Senate last Monday passed on second reading Senate Bill (SB) No. 2818, or the proposed “An Act Strengthening National Housing Authority by Extending its Corporate Term and Rationalizing its Powers, Repealing for this Purpose Presidential Decree No. 757, series of 1975.”

The House passed its own version of HB 10172, or the “National Housing Authority (NHA) Act,” on third and final reading by a vote of 188-0 with no abstention, shortly before the 19th Congress went on recess last Sept. 25.

HB 10172 was co-authored by Speaker Martin Romualdez with Villafuerte, House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, House Senior Deputy Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos and around two dozen other lawmakers.

There is only a week left for the Senate to work on the measure as it is set to adjourn on February 7.

The 19th Congress will resume session on June 2 but will adjourn sine die on the 13th of the same month.

Since the Senate version of the bill seeks to increase the corporate term of the NHA by another 50 years, a bicameral meeting with congressmen will still have to be called to iron out the differing provisions between the two versions of the bill since the House version only calls for a 25-year extension.

Aside from extending NHA’S corporate life, HB 10172 also seeks to strengthen its corporate powers to continue the pursuit of its objective of providing affordable and decent housing for underserved Filipino families or the lowest 30 percent of the urban population by way of slum upgrading, informal settler relocation, development of sites and services and construction of core housing units.

The NHA is a government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC) that was established in 1975 on the strength of PD 757 issued then by the late President Marcos Sr.

PD 757 was amended by Executive Order (EO) No. 90 that was issued in 1986 by the late President Corazon Aquino.

“The Congress needs to extend the corporate life of the NHA in support of the State policy of sustaining an urban land reform and housing program that shall make available, affordable and decent housing with basic services to underprivileged and homeless citizens,” said Villafuerte.

He added: “This is in line with the Bagong Pilipinas vision of President Marcos to guarantee freedom from poverty and better living standards for all Filipinos.”

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