The Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and the 17 Metro Manila mayors acted on President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Program (4PH).

This was forged during the Metro Manila Council meeting held yesterday at the MMDA headquarters in Pasig City.

Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar said the DHSUD has 170,000 units or 55 projects in different locations in Metro Manila that are currently in construction. 

The 4PH program is designed to address the need for decent housing and to build on the potential impact of a robust sector on the growing economy. Informal settler families shall be temporarily relocated to the government staging areas for at least one to two years while the 4PH project is under construction. All ISFs shall be permanently transferred to their new housing area once completed. 

DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos said local government units in Metro Manila have a big role to play in identifying idle government lands that can be used for the government’s housing program and staging areas that will serve as temporary shelters.

“The ISF families will not be displaced as we plan in-city relocation,” Abalos said.

MMDA acting chairman Atty. Don Artes, who presided over the MMC meeting, said the Metro Manila mayors will come up with an inventory of informal settler families in their areas of jurisdiction and government-owned open spaces or suitable areas as staging sites.

“We will create a Technical Working Group that will be closely working together for the submission of LGUs’ inventories of all available and suitable lands for the program,” Artes said.

San Juan City Mayor and MMC president Francis Zamora also expressed Metro Manila’s commitment and cooperation to ensure the successful implementation of the 4PH program under the President’s Executive Order 34.