Budget chief defends reduced allocation to Housing department

BUDGET SECRETARY Wendel A. Avisado on Thursday defended the reduced allocation of the newly-created Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) for 20221, noting that the agency is not tasked with the actual construction of houses.

In a briefing on Thursday, Mr. Avisado said the DHSUD is mainly responsible for policy-setting, coordination, and monitoring while the National Housing Authority is in charge of building socialized housing projects.

“DHSUD has its own mandate. And if we look at the law itself, it says that it will be the sole and main planning and policy making regulatory, program, coordination and performance monitoring of all housing human settlement and urban development concerns,” he said.

Lawmakers on Wednesday questioned the P4 billion DHSUD allocation under the 2021 proposed budget, which is about half its P7.83-billion budget this year.

“Housing production is with the National Housing Authority and the National Housing Authority receives minimal subsidy from the national government because it has its own corporate funds. So that’s the reason why there’s not much funds that we can see at the department (DHSUD) itself because its function is not on housing production,” Mr. Avisado said. — Gillian M. Cortez