Needed: Low-Cost Housing Projects For Millions Of Poor Filipinos

May 5,2010
Needed:Low-Cost Housing Projects For Millions Of Poor Filipinos
By Quirico M.. Gorpido, Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-Why is it that the construction of low-cost housing projects by various presidential administrations past and present for the millions of poor Filipinos in the country is given a very little concern by the Presidency.?
The constructions of housing projects were carried out mostly in the Luzon areas by the Arroyo administration under the housing czar Noli de Castro. I did not know of any kind of housing project done by the government in the Visayas and Mindanao. Is there any? Not to mention the housing projects funded by the PAG-IBIG Fund for government workers because this kind of project is obviously not for the millions of poor Filipinos with little and impermanent income.
And why is it that whoever is the appointed housing czar by any presidency, the Visayas and Mindanao areas are somewhat ignore? Does this mean that the millions of poor Filipinos in the Luzon areas are the only ones who are direly in need of their own roofs for their heads?
This has been done by the previous administrations as long as I can remember starting in my high school days. The only Administration that I can remember that did the construction of low-cost housing projects was the so-called BLISS Project. This was, if I’m not mistaken, led and supervised by the former First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos.
On the other hand, I do not know exactly how many poor Filipinos have benefited by that project. Were Imelda’s housing projects only for government employees or for poor Filipinos also? However, her kind of housing projects were apartment-style buildings where many families could be accommodated. It would be better if it was constructed as duplex-type or two-storey apartment -type housing units good for one Filipino family occupant with several members.
As one of the millions of poor Filipinos who do not own a house until this very moment I now find how important is it to have my own house and lot.However, I cannot afford to build my own house because I have a very low income ever since I started to work. I have experienced working in two private companies when I was still living in Metro Manila for the past several years. But those jobs did not last very long.
Here in the province I have also experienced working in a government office only for more than a year. But I have failed to be accepted in another government office because I’m not eligible.Nonethelesss; my second potential work was simple. Even a high school graduate can do it. Instructions from knowledgeable person in that office could easily be learned by me. Yet the strict imposition of a particular requirement became an obstacle for getting me accepted.
If only I was accepted in that second government job, most probably I will be qualified many years later for a loan for the construction of my own house. Nevertheless, my wish did not get to materialze.Because of that failure I go back to selling the Manila papers to provide me with only a little income.
Selling the local and national newspapers during the past years when a liter of gasoline was P12 up to plus P20 a liter was still quite good. However, as the prices of gasoline, crude oil and other oil products have steadily increased, the sales of newspapers were badly affected. From good sales it went down to slow sales. These slow sales of local and national newspapers have again gone down to comparably “a very slow pace of sale like a turtles’ walk” on the trail.
One can just imagine this kind of sale. With very little income how can a newsboy meet both ends meet? When the prices of gasoline and other oil products have previously rollback several times, the sales of local and the national newspapers and magazines did not bounce back to its former state of good sales.
I have been an erstwhile correspondent/contributor to a weekly Cebu-based newspaper and 2 Cebu-based dailies for several years. Here in region 8(Leyte and Samar) I have been also a correspondent to 2 Tacloban-based weekly for several years. At present I’m contributing to another Tacloban –based regional newspaper. The incomes in contributing articles in these newspapers I have mentioned are honorarium-based. This means that what the contributors are receiving is payment per article. If a contributor has no article or did not send article for the newspaper he/she should expects no honorarium. In other words we have neither salary nor an allowance for new coverage.
Except in some occasions when the editor or the publisher will instruct a contributor/correspondent to cover a sports games or special news coverage in a place where he could not go and where concentration or focus is called for three to four days. This is the only time or occasion when a contributor/correspondent would be given an allowance for his/her sustenance during the duration of such a news coverage. Other than that, we are left on our own initiative and resourcefulness in gathering materials for news stories.
This is one kind of work where some individuals who are more of money-oriented than service-oriented would choose not to be news contributors at all. They prefer to remain jobless and going carefree because they have their respective families to rely on for their subsistence and sustenance. For me and other poor writers who have no siblings or rich relatives to turn to for financial assistance, we would just bite the bullet.
No siblings here figuratively means that being married and have families of their own to feed and care for, they find it hard to extend assistance to their other poor kith and kin.
Some publishers/owners of provincial newspapers want to give increased to their writers’honorarium,but for some reason they could not do it. Others do not want to give increase for the reason that their earnings are just

-2-

getting even or have a little profit. I also do not know exactly if staff writers in some provincial newspapers are having their increase or have remain the same as in the past years.
My being poor and my low income are principally the reason why until now I have been renting in different houses for the last 20 years. If at the start of my living independently I have been occupying in a low-cost housing projects with lots intended for the poor within a span of 10 years low monthly basis payment, I could have my own house and lot now. It would be much better also if a contributor to a newspaper or magazine has another outlet for additional income.
I have been applying for the past several months to 3 Manila-based newspapers as a contributor of news stories or opinion/commentary articles, but not one has answered by application. I have also applied to a total of 5 online newspapers in the US, but they did not need a contributor. I have also spotted an online newspaper in Canada that accepts articles from a writer or reader but would not give honorarium. Not giving an honorarium per article for a writer means that the publisher wants me or other writers to work but will not give a compensation. How is that? Is writing not a form of work or a job? Can a news story or feature or a commentary be formed into an article if the writer will not set and focus and spend time to write it? Does a writer don’t have some needs to meet? To be a volunteer writer is unfit for my financial situation. Can a writer write with empty stomach? Being a volunteer writer only suit for an individual who has big money in the bank-for he/she can work as he/she has something to sustain his/he daily needs even without receiving some compensation. To be a volunteer writer is only suitable for the son/daughter of the rich and the affluent.
I now feel the hardships of being a poor man. And the worst of being poor is until now I’m still renting and my little income did not increase but has decreased. Ironically, the prices of prime commodities, services, goods, medicines and other products have been increasing. The reduction of a chosen insignificant few of about 6 to 7 kinds of medicines in drugstores does not in any way serve the needs of the poor patients in general. Only a few people have benefited from it. The real reduction of medicine prices should be encompassing: that is all kinds of medicines’ prices must be reduced significantly and efficiently that all Filipinos rich and poor will enjoy it. Other countries are doing this kind of reduced and low prices of all their medicines. Why can’t the Philippines? Are the multinational pharmaceuticals in the country so powerful that our government can do nothing to prevent them from increasing their medical products? With the way our economy is running, how can I sustain my monthly rental fee? My income is very irregular and I cannot predict how much I’m going to earn today selling newspapers in the streets. How about. my honorarium of my articles contributed to a newspaper in Tacloban? I have to let it accumulative for months before deciding to claim it. Claiming it little by little is like fetching water in faraway minuscule spring but gathering only a trickle.
Just recently however, I was elated upon reading in the Philippines Star (April 1, 2010 issue) that the second batch of reduced medicines (drugs) covering a total of 97 and medical supplies have 50% price reduction effective March 1, 2010. The first batch of reduced prices of 50% of 47 drugs was implemented last year Aug. 15, 2009. But until this very date, May 5, 2010, the managements of several drugstores in Maasin City have not yet received the guidelines of the 97 drugs from the eleven (11) pharmaceutical companies that provide for the reduced prices of their products. The Dept. of Health Secretary Cabral who revealed this new list of reduced prices of the aforesaid drugs to the media should check the offices of the pharma companies that comply with the law if they have started to send the guidelines to various drugstores nationwide to hasten the implementations for the benefit of the poor and indigent patients in the country.
In my early twenties I went to Manila to see the place for myself which I only saw in Tagalog films and to seek employment. I have experienced working in different menial and manual works before I was able to work in 2 private offices in Metro Manila while still living their for several years. The first was in Sta.Mesa, Manila and the second was in Makati.But we cannot predict the future of our jobs.
I was hospitalized and after I got well I was lead off from my job in Makati.The office where I worked was the one that paid for my hospitalization. I became jobless. I have decided then to go back to my native province of Leyte. Although I have grown up, study in the elementary and high school in Ozamis City, where my granduncle (the younger brother of my maternal grandmother) was living with his family. However, my siblings and I were all born in St.Benard, Southen Leyte.When my late grandmother moved to Ozamis she brought us with her and we left our house in St.Bernard.My parents and my grandparents have already passed away many many years ago. I study in St.Bernard in grades three and four. But we went back to Ozamis after receiving a telegram informing us that our Lola has died.
Here in my province I was able to work in a government office as a writer of documentation reports for the projects undertaken by the environment office. I have reached more than a year of working until I was told by the new head that I would be led off from my job being a casual worker and not an eligible employee. I was told that I would be replaced by an eligible woman. Later however, I’ve learned that she did not know my kind of job since she finished computer science and my work in the office pertained to journalism or a masscom course.
Several weeks after I was led off I applied in another government office as a letter carrier to be assigned in another town. I was asked for civil service eligibility. I’ve said I have none. I was informed that it is one of the requirements for an applicant as a letter carrier at that time. I have applied three times at the post office but I was always asked for my CSE from the 3 heads whom I have approached and applied for a job.
Is the position of a letter carrier really necessitates the requirement of a civil service eligibility from an applicant? Is this kind of work difficult to do that an applicant should be a CSE passer? I don’t think so. To be a letter carrier is easy to learn from the coaching of those who are working at the post office. It can even be taught and easily learned by a high school graduate. I do not know exactly why the post office during that time was so strict with that requirement. Currently I do not know what would be their standard for applicants. I have already lost interest in applying for jobs in the government service since I’m no longer qualified. Hence, I go
-3-

back to the kind of vocation that I have been engaging ever since I was a working student in high school. That is I go back to selling newspapers. I’m doing this because my honorariums for news articles that I have contributed to a Tacloban-based newspaper are not enough to meet my daily needs and other things.
WE the millions of poor Filipinos are hoping that the next administration and the succeeding administrations in the coming years will be more concern and will consider as one of its priorities the construction of housing projects, not only in the Luzon areas, but also in the Visayas and Mindanao areas.
Constructions of low-cost housing units should be established in all provinces of the country where there are numerous poor inhabitants. We also hope that private institutions nationwide that can afford and have the means to help the millions of poor Filipinos will undertake constructions of housing projects in various areas of the country. Materials for the housing units should not be of mediocre but made of durable materials to save money for constant repair. Lots where the houses have stood should be included in the affordably low monthly installment payments for each house from the beneficiaries to save them from the burden of monthly lot rentals.
Other poor Filipinos who can hardly afford for an affordably low monthly installment payments for the span of 10 years to pay since they have many family members to feed should be categorized as “cannot pay”. They can have their counterpart in the constructions of the housing projects by hiring them to help build their own respective future houses under the supervision of the assigned architects and foremen in every project in various areas.
The realization of our appeal and hope by the immediate action of our government is a great relief in the reduction of our being poor since owning each poor Filipino family a house and lot is like a love offering pulling a painful piercing thorn out of our feet. Again we hope that our dream of owning a house and lot through very affordable low monthly installment payment for 10 years will materialize in our lifetime.
WE hope that whoever will become the new President after the first automated May 10, 2010 national and local elections-either Manny Villar, Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro or Richard “Dick” Gordon-he will include in his program of governance the constructions of affordably low-cost housing projects for the millions of poor Filipinos in every provinces of the entire regions of the country that they can own after monthly installment payments for the span of 10 years. In the succeeding administrations, whoever will be the incumbents should also continue the constructions of the low-cost housing projects until such time that it will saturate in all the country’s provinces and regions that every poor Filipino family can have his/her own house and that no-one will remain a squatter in his own country.
Why I mentioned the three presidential aspirants in this case? Because as Senate President, DND Secretary and Manager of the former Clark Air Base-turn-economic zone area in Pampanga respectively, they were leaders in their respective positions in the past. They were managing and supervising some people. It follows that they have the managerial skills and the experiences necessary to provide an able and strong leadership in the presidency.
Running for the position of President of the Republic is not a joke but a serious matter. This is the position where skills and experiences in running a government is required. Being the President, you have many responsibilities to hold and to face big problems that are wanting for sloutions.There is no OJT (on the job training) in the seat of the presidency. One must have the acquired skills and the necessary experiences in running the machinery of the government. In other words, a President of the Republic must be mentally, physically, emotionally and psychologically fit and capable of handling his task as a leader. Like in applying for a job, a discerning employer will always be looking for applicants who are qualified for the job and not just anybody who applied for the vacant position.(Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)