Marcos Reaffirms Commitment to Expanding Land and Home Ownership Across Philippines

Manila, The Gulf Observer: Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to expanding land and home ownership nationwide, describing the provision of secure land titles to families without tenure as a key government priority.

Marcos made the remarks on Tuesday while leading the distribution of land titles to beneficiaries of the Community Mortgage Program during his visit to Barangay 167 in Llano, Caloocan City.

The President personally distributed 110 land titles to beneficiaries, following the turnover of 913 titles on September 13.

Marcos said providing land titles to Filipinos without secure homes is an important responsibility of the government, particularly amid the country’s continuing shortage of socialized and low-cost housing.

He identified housing as one of the major priorities of his administration and said the national government is working closely with local governments to address the housing gap and provide more families with safe and secure homes.

The President emphasised that home ownership, supported by a legal title proving ownership, provides families with greater security and establishes a foundation from which they can pursue their aspirations.

While acknowledging the scale of the country’s housing requirements, Marcos stressed that sustained efforts are necessary to address the problem and assured beneficiaries that government housing initiatives would continue nationwide.

He expressed hope that the country would eventually reach a point where the government would no longer need to continually catch up with the housing needs of Filipino families.

Marcos also urged the beneficiaries to properly care for their properties, noting that secure land ownership would provide their families with greater stability and comfort in the future.

The title distribution was undertaken through the Enhanced Community Mortgage Program of the Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC), one of the housing initiatives being implemented under the administration’s Expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program.

The Community Mortgage Program provides affordable financing to organised community associations for land acquisition and other housing requirements. It enables residents of informal settlements to secure ownership of the land they occupy while supporting the development of organised communities.

Since its establishment in 1988, the programme has helped more than 301,000 families nationwide obtain security of tenure.

In Llano, homeowners’ associations entered into individual Community Mortgage Program agreements with the SHFC over a period of nearly 15 years before establishing a federation in 2020.