GOVERNMENT HOUSING PROJECT. The Pangasinan provincial government is to implement the Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino Program (4PH) program, with an initial target of building 50,000 housing units. The provincial government is currently in talks with some developers and eyes to break ground by July this year. (Photo courtesy of the Pangasinan provincial government)
MALASIQUI, Pangasinan – The provincial government of Pangasinan is set to roll out the Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino Program (4PH), targeting to build 50,000 housing units within 10 years starting 2024.
Provincial Human Settlements and Urban Development Authority head engineer Alvin Bigay, in a phone interview on Thursday, said 4PH in the province welcomes households from the formal and informal sectors.
Formal sectors, he said, are government employees who want to have their own houses while the informal sectors are those living in danger zones or the informal settlers, but the priority is the underprivileged families.
Bigay said the tentative target areas for the housing projects will be in Lingayen, Umingan, and Binmaley towns.
“The regular interest rate for housing units is six percent. Under the 4PH, the five percent will be subsidized by the national government,” he said in Filipino.
He said they are now accepting applications in their office at the Provincial Capitol in Lingayen town.
“They may visit us at our office to signify their intention and fill out the forms, which we will later forward to the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) for their approval,” he said.
Bigay said the provincial government is already in talks with some developers and is targeting to break grounds by next month.
He said the provincial government is considering various modalities to implement the program such as joint-venture agreement wherein land will be provided by the provincial government and the developer will finance the land development and vertical housing construction; for the developer to solely shoulder both the land acquisition and development and housing building construction; or for the developer to take a third party to finance the project.
“The role of the local government is to provide the target beneficiaries and recommend qualified beneficiaries, which will be the basis of the developer on the number of housing units,” he said.
The province has around 170,000 housing unit backlogs but the provincial government initially targets to build 50,000, he added. (PNA)
