Inefficiency and corruption

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IT took the Commission on Audit to uncover a serious irregularity going on in the public housing and infrastructure sector, which involves the relocation of informal settler families (ISFs) displaced by the construction of the Connector Road Project that links the North Luzon Expressway and the South Luzon Expressway in Metro Manila.

Based on the April 25, 2018 memorandum of agreement between the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the shelter agency agreed to “undertake the relocation and resettlement and the provision of adequate and basic services and community facilities the estimated 4,000 ISFs.”

These ISFs are what we used to call “squatters” which is actually a more accurate term, but the government and the media have decided to engage in euphemism in order not to hurt their feelings or the concerns of a majority of society.  The fact is that they have violated the law with impunity and for decades, by appropriating for themselves public land and private property owned by private individuals and government corporations like the Philippine National Railways (PNR).  Now, the government and private firms with infrastructure projects have to relocate them at corporate and taxpayers’ expense.

‘It should be the joint responsibility of the NHA officials under the Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administrations to provide the public with a full explanation on what really happened here.’

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The beneficiaries of the NLEX-SLEX Connector Road Project are 3,500 families from the Manila section and another 500 families from the Caloocan City section.  According to the plan, 1,200 families would be given a housing unit each in the in-city resettlement projects consisting of several five-story, low-rise residential structures.  The remaining 2,800 families would be housed in “single-story loftable row houses” in off-city resettlement sites.  Total relocation cost was estimated at P1.983 billion.

The DPWH turned over P2.417 billion to the NHA on Nov. 16, 2018 to implement the relocation project.  Five years later, or as of Dec. 31, 2023, the money has been depleted but only 741 families or a measly 18.53 percent have been relocated.

On top of this, the audit report released on Dec. 1, 2024 showed the project had a negative fund balance of P57.175 million, meaning the NHA’s disbursements even exceeded the available budget.

State auditors found that at yearend 2023, the NHA had already spent P2.416 billion for the low-rise buildings and row houses, P48.449 million as “program administration” which went to the agency as project administrator, and P9.75 million as “relocation costs.”

Under the 2018 DPWH-NHA agreement, the government housing agency committed to  “undertake the relocation and resettlement of affected families therein within 24 months, inclusive of bidding process.” Obviously, this did not happen as the project incurred delays, suspensions and time extensions for more than four years.

The COA called out the NHA that the agreement also provided for the construction of markets, elementary and high schools, health centers, daycare centers, tricycle terminals, and multi-purpose covered courts with a combined budget of P107.41 million.  Not a single disbursement was made to construct these facilities.

It should be the joint responsibility of the NHA officials under the Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administrations to provide the public with a full explanation on what really happened here.  Many observers are eyeing the twin menace called inefficiency and official corruption as the culprit.

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