THE government will tap the private sector and encourage volunteerism in a move to meet its target of halving the country’s 3.6 million housing gap by the time President Benigno S. Aquino III bows out of office in 2016.

“Since the resources of government are limited, we will fast-track the implementation of our sustainable communities, including the immediate development of other proclaimed sites for housing under PPP (Public Private Partnerships)schemes,” Vice President and Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Chair Jejomar Binay on Wednesday said in a speech at the 1st Philippine Urbanization Forum at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.

Binay also encouraged civil society organizations to join hands with HUDCC in pushing for the needed reforms in the housing sector.

“We would like to solicit your support to push for the strict enforcement of RA 7279 or the Urban Development Housing Act (UDHA),” he said.

“Furthermore, we would like to encourage volunteerism as a means to directly link the public sector, the private sector, and civil society organizations in re-engineering our settlements and involvement of our civil society organizations and people’s organizations in estate management particularly in providing training and livelihood assistance,” he added.

The Vice President said the country’s key shelter agencies are currently formulating housing policies that are designed to significantly reduce the country’s housing gap by half in 2016.

He also said that the government is seriously considering portions of the land previously declared as housing sites to be developed as commercial areas to make them the enabling component for socialized and low-cost housing.

“To date, there are more than a hundred proclamations that have been signed by our present and past presidents for housing purposes and most of these lands remain underdeveloped. We need the private sector to convert these idle and underutilized government lands into pre-planned self-sustaining green communities,” he added.

Binay noted that the Philippines is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in East Asia, but while its cities serve as engines of growth, they also suffer from issues like high poverty incidence, environmental degradation, and a lack of decent housing resulting in the proliferation of slums and informal settlements.

To combat this, Binay said that HUDCC is working with local government units (LGUs) in order to build their capacities to carry out and implement their own housing programs.

“When economic progress takes place in the city, rural to urban migration certainly follows. This necessitates taking an active role in reaching out and talking to all stakeholders - the grass roots, the local government units, and the private sector, both in rural and urban areas,” he said.

“The challenge before us is to effectively manage urbanization. We need to look back at our existing policies and programs on urban development and determine how cities and local governments can be equipped with the tools needed to manage increasingly complex and dynamic urban systems,” he added.

Binay also noted that often, development is equated with economic progress alone and that environmental and ecological considerations frequently take a backseat. He said that as a result, the world’s and the Philippines’ greatest setback now is coping with climate change against increased population density.

“Environmental factors such as natural drainage and the preservation of watersheds is more necessary than ever. This is why we are pro-actively pushing for the integration of sustainable practices and principles of good governance with national and local development plans,” he said.