Published November 13, 2018, 12:05 AM
MEDIUM RARE
By JULLIE Y. DAZA

(With apologies to The Hows of Us, a movie about millennials and how they get into and out of and back into relationships, which has grossed P700 million to beat Vice Ganda’s record-breaking P600 million take at the 2017 Metro Manila Film Festival.)

What do millennials, Generation X and Y and even their parents have in common?

Alas, it’s nothing romantic, for what the generations share over time has been the perennial lack of a house – before it becomes a home – to call their own. As more people are born, more houses need to be built, except that such has not been the case. Look at those sturdy, thoroughly lived-in BLISS apartments, in particular the ones clustered in the neighborhood of SM North, that have survived floods and typhoons since “Marcos time” and how they have spawned not a single decent tenement housing project.

The statistics on the houseless are a shame but not irreversible. Negros Occ. Rep. Albee Benitez, chairman of the housing committee in Congress, prefers to call the problem a need rather than a backlog. “Six million people need to own a house; they’re either renting, living with relatives, or simply homeless. In Metro Manila,” he adds, “only 30 percent of the population have the capacity to pay rent or buy a house.” After food and transportation, housing is No. 3 priority, gobbling up 25 percent of a typical salary of P10,000.

Updated October 12, 2018, 12:25 AM
By Ben Rosario

The House of Representatives has ratified the bicameral committee report on the creation of a Department of Housing and Urban Development (DHUD), a regular government department that will rationalize and coordinate the functions and powers of various housing agencies of the state.

Strongly endorsed for ratification by Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo “Albee” Benitez, the report of the bicameral panel consolidated the two versions of the DHUD measure.

By: Pathricia Ann V. Roxas - Reporter / @PathRoxasINQ INQUIRER.net / 07:39 PM June 14, 2018

The National Housing Authority (NHA) should work double time in awarding the idle housing units of uniformed personnel to poor families, Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Albee Benitez said Thursday.

Benitez, chair of the House committee on housing and urban development, said this is mandated by Congressional Joint Resolution No. 2 which President Rodrigo Duterte had signed.

By Jovee Marie de la Cruz - June 6, 20188

The chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development is urging the National Housing Authority (NHA) to nullify the transfer of rights for housing units unlawfully sold by beneficiaries of the government’s socialized housing programs.

In House Resolution 1906, Rep. Alfredo Benitez  of the Third District of Negros Occidental said there are many cases where beneficiaries of the housing programs of the NHA had either sold or rented out the housing units and/or lots awarded to them.