Tulfo flags alleged favoritism in NHA's housing projects

Senator Raffy Tulfo on Tuesday flagged alleged "palakasan," or patronage in National Housing Authority (NHA) housing projects, particularly for calamity and tragedy victims.

During the Senate deliberations on the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and its attached agencies’ proposed ₱5.498-billion budget for 2027, Tulfo said that he received complaints that some local officials favor people they knew for housing.

“Talamak daw ang palakasan. Karamihan daw sa nabibigyan ng pabahay eh mga taga-munisipyo o dabarkads ni chairman, etc. Ito mayroon akong feedback galing sa netizens, in fact, may mga nag-email sa tanggapan ko,” he said.

(Favoritism is allegedly rampant. Most of those being given housing are allegedly municipal employees or close friends of the barangay chairman, etc. I have feedback from netizens here; in fact, some have sent emails to my office.)

For its part, the NHA said that the beneficiaries of their housing project comes from the local government unit.

The agency also said that the only validation they conduct is by checking if those in the list have yet to receive a house.

“Mayroon pong resettlement, mayroon pong calamity. So bago kami mag-start, mayroon na po talagang listahan ng beneficiaries. Itong listahan na ito ay galing ng LGU. Vina-validate ng OCD yung biktima ng bagyo o trahedya. Tsaka pinapasa sa amin, so vinavalidate lang namin ito based sa hindi sila naulit, kumbaga hindi pa sila nabigyan ng bahay noon,” said NHA General Manager Joeben Tai.

(There is resettlement, and there is calamity housing. So before we start, there is already a list of beneficiaries. This list comes from the LGU. The OCD validates the victims of the typhoon or tragedy. Then it is passed to us, so we only validate it based on whether they are duplicates—meaning they haven't been given a house before.)

However, Tulfo noted that the NHA should still make sure that those in the list of beneficiaries have no connections to the local officials issuing them.

The senator said that even those who already have a home of their own or have cars are still getting free housing due to connections.

“You have to have a system para masiguro na itong mga LGU na nagbibigay sa inyo ng listahan ay hindi yung listahan nila na pabor sa kanilang mga followers, pabor sa kanilang mga nagka-campaign, pabor sa kanilang mga tauhan,” said Tulfo.

(You have to have a system to ensure that these LGUs giving you lists aren't providing lists that favor their followers, favor their campaign workers, or favor their staff.)

The NHA assured that it will strictly monitor the list of beneficiaries, warning that home ownership rights will be revoked if housing units are sold to non-beneficiaries.

“Ito po yung mga naibebentang unit kung saan binenta ng mga benepisyaryo yung kanilang mga unit sa P200,000, P300,000. Ayan din po chine-check namin, upang masiguro na benepisyaryo lang po ang nakatira,” said Tai.

(These are the sold units where beneficiaries sold them for ₱200,000 or ₱300,000. That is also what we check, to ensure that only beneficiaries are living there.)

“Lugi rin po yung nakabili kasi kina-cancel namin 'yan, at pinapaalis namin yung nakabili,” he added.

(The buyers also lose out because we cancel those rights, and we evict the buyer.) — BM, GMA News