FIRING LINE: Housing common sense

FIRING LINE: Housing common sense

By Robert B. Roque Jr.  | November 12, 2026

A paradox sits in plain sight: roughly 80,000 unsold condominium units in Metro Manila, many built for the vanished offshore gaming market, stand empty. At the same time, millions of Filipinos have nowhere decent to live. Senator Francis Escudero put it bluntly on his podcast: “Why build from scratch when there are already existing units that can be made available to our people?”

Good question. And the clock is ticking, because buildings nobody lives in don’t wait. With no tenants, no one fixes the leaks or notices the cracks. Left alone, these completed investments will crumble and powder away. What a waste if the Filipino family and the concrete both run out of time.

The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) already lets developers enroll excess inventory in the 4PH program, though it admits this may mean lower margins or losses. That is precisely why the political will must come from the top. Senate Bill 2571 would let ready-for-occupancy units count as accredited socialized housing. Pag-IBIG and other lenders should follow with lower interest rates, longer terms, and rental options a worker can actually afford.

President Marcos should lead this, because the record demands it. In his 2022 SONA, he promised 6.15 million homes by the end of his term. DHSUD has since cut that target to 1.13 million by June 2028. Even the celebrated “500,000 homes” claimed at this year’s SONA is generous: only 81,295 were directly built, while 368,731 were simply families assisted with loans. Fewer than 100,000 new structures against a six-million promise is not a shortfall. It is a broken promise.

The stakes are higher because the economy offers no cushion. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on November 9 that third-quarter GDP grew just 2.1%, the fifth straight quarter of slowing. Vietnam grew 9.95%, Indonesia 5.47%, Singapore 5.40%, Malaysia 5.30%. We are dead last.

Yet even now, property holds gold-mine opportunities that we risk missing. Appraiser Jose Maria Fernandez-Cuervo told Bilyonaryo’s “Follow the Money” that land values in Porac, Pampanga rose 600% from 2015 to 2025, and about 300% in Cavite. Land in Bulacan is climbing in anticipation of the New Manila International Airport, and he sees upside in Batangas along the widened STAR Tollway and the road to Nasugbu, and in Iloilo, Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro. His rule is simple: follow the highways. His caution is equally simple: visit the site first.

Which returns us to Escudero’s point. The department, under the President’s lead, must seize every opportunity, whether empty towers, idle land or new roads, to bring decent housing down to the homeless masses.

This government must equip every Filipino to bring housing within reach, and the working man must be ready to roll up his sleeves and help himself build a home. And that only happens if government gives him the footing to do it: payments he can carry, rental and rent-to-own paths, honest prices, water, power, schools and transport around his roof, and jobs near where he lives.

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