All in for 4PH

Nosy Tarsee received a tidbit from the corporate pages that should put a smile on the faces of Filipinos who have yet to own a house.

A listed builder with a long list of airports, terminals and transport projects quietly decided last Friday that its money would be better spent on homes.

Its board has redirected some P1.23 billion in leftover proceeds from a bond sold back in 2022. The money was meant for transport-centric projects. It will now go to units under the Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) program.

Barely a week earlier, the builder bagged P12.8 billion in fresh housing contracts, bringing nearly 20,000 units into its pipeline. Its boss has been telling anyone who will listen that he wants to build 100,000 homes in five to seven years.

The filing is silent on which projects will get the cash and when. But for a program that Malacañang says has already built or financed more than 500,000 homes, fresh private money from a builder that has just changed its priorities is a vote of confidence.

Nosy Tarsee’s little bird says others may follow suit.

So guess which listed builder just told its bondholders, in effect, “housing first, buses later”?

The bond proceeds shift came days after the company won P12.8 billion in new housing contracts. For a program already credited with more than half a million homes built or financed, that is a very big shot in the arm.

The “half a million homes” figure is from the President’s State of the Nation Address, so it counts financed units as well as built ones.