Menarco CEO Carmen Jimenez-Ong: Healthy homes should not be a luxury

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In the Philippines, a housing shortage has forced many families to live in unsafe and high-risk areas.

For years, around 50 families lived in cramped, makeshift homes inside an underground tunnel beneath Osmeña Highway in Manila before the government relocated them to Bulacan in September.

Meanwhile, around 1,000 families in Barangay Bagong Silangan, Quezon City, continue to live in a community without direct access to piped water and electricity.

Yet adequate housing is a human right, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office.

Housing, it says, is “a place to live in peace, security, and dignity.”

For Carmen Jimenez-Ong, founder and chief executive officer of award-winning real estate developer Menarco Development Corporation, access to healthy homes “is not a luxury.”

“It’s something that we should have as people,” she told GMA News in an interview on Wednesday. “It is very achievable.”

Jimenez-Ong said healthy homes are not necessarily about building more expensive houses but about building smarter. This includes ensuring adequate natural light, proper ventilation, and access to clean water, among other essentials.

“Creating a community within the space also makes it a healthy home,” she added.

She also emphasized the important role of the government in making healthy housing accessible.

“Government should provide that for the people. It is so basic,” she said.

Jimenez-Ong said Menarco is in talks with the national government and several local government units to gradually make healthy housing more accessible to Filipinos.

“We are being provided the opportunity to create healthy spaces for the people,” she added.

Menarco recently partnered with the Quezon City government to develop the Philippines' first WELL pre-certified socialized housing project in Barangay Old Balara.

Healthier communities

International WELL Building Institute head of Asia Pacific Jack Noonan said creating healthier spaces is crucial to building healthier communities.

“If we can build healthier buildings, we’re going to have healthier people, healthier communities, healthier societies… We’re building more resilient communities,” he said.

But healthy spaces should not be limited to homes. Workplaces also need to promote health and well-being, according to Noonan.

“If we’re able to create environments that promote health and well-being of the people who come to work in them, then we’re really helping the companies achieve greater success, because their people will become more productive and more happy being in the office,” NEO Office PH chief executive officer Raymond Rufino added.

“When the people are healthy, the country is healthy. It begins with the people,” Jimenez-Ong said. — VBL, GMA News