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The President of the Chamber of Real Estate and
Builders Association (CREBA) went to the Kapihan sa Sulo last
Saturday to complain about the gridlock in the housing industry.
Reason: Conflict in policies between the Department of Agrarian
Reform and the local governments.
According to CREBA President
Reghis Romero, the housing industry has been tasked to build one
million homes up to 2010. But this could not be realized because DAR
recently imposed a ban on the conversion of lands. Romero and the
housing industry want DAR to review its policies to keep up with
modern times.
Of course, we know the political
pressures confronting DAR. Under instruction to retain or expand the
lands earmarked for food production, Secretary Nasser Pangandaman
has come up with a policy to stop the conversion process. The
problem is that he is doing it to the extreme, to the detriment of
the other needs of the people.
Romero revealed that Pangandaman
wants to prevent the conversion of the three percent of land that
has been allocated by local governments for housing. If that is the
case, where will the residents build their homes? In all
calculations, three percent is an ideal share of the housing
industry.
Romero wants a dialogue with DAR
and possibly with Congress and the Office of the President to settle
this problem as it is already causing problems in the industry and
in the towns. If that is not possible, Romero will go to the courts
to settle the issue.
He fears that the housing
industry might be made a scapegoat in this problem of food shortage.
Already, there are statements coming from politicians that the
housing sector is to be blamed. Romero appealed to the authorities
to take a look at the facts. “In truth, the progress of the whole
country is being held hostage because of the ban on conversion,”
Romero told the forum.
Olympic torch now in China
The Olympic torch relay has
started its mainland leg the other day in Sanya in Hainan province.
The relay will most likely be unhampered by protests since the
Chinese are proud that the Olympics will be held in their country.
A Chinese writing in the Internet
expressed the sentiment of his countrymen: “Being Chinese, it’s
not easy. Ah, foreigners don’t understand China. They still think
we are still stuck in the past. They still think we’re poor. This
is our chance to show them the real China.”
The Chinese leadership is
determined to show that the protests about Tibet in capitals like
Paris, London and San Francisco are simply the biases of Westerners.
One of the venues for the torch relay inside China is in Tibet
itself, right in the city of Llasa, the headquarters of the Dalai
Lama.
The protests in the West have
died down. French President Sarkozy has sent an emissary to China
apologizing for the disruption of the relay in Paris and for the
pro-Dalai Lama behavior of the Paris government. As for London, it
is now behaving responsibly since it wants to assure full
participation when London hosts the Olympics in 2012.
MNLF rises from the grave
Now, it can be said from the
recent developments in Moroland that the stature of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) is going down, while the esteem of the Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) is going up.
Proof of this is the recent
decision by MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari to call on his personal
friend–Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City–to host a meeting of
the MNLF. Misuari wants consultations done in this city because it
is convenient to his followers.
MNLF’s revival was caused by
the realization by the Palace that the Malaysian-brokered MILF-GRP
talks were going nowhere. When the talks floundered because of the
sticky issue of ancestral domain, the government activated its links
with the MNLF.
It seems that the Organization of
Islamic Conference will soon be reactivating its Committee of Five
headed by Indonesia to replace Malaysia as the facilitator and
peacekeeping force. Expect Libya to be at the center of the
negotiations. It’s likely that the Tripoli Agreement will again be
the starting point for the renewed talks.
GSIS suit vs. Meralco
For whatever it is worth, the
suit filed by the Government Service Insurance System against
Meralco should be all right with the consumers. Anything that will
check the profit tendencies of the Meralco deserves our support.
In the GSIS suit, Meralco was
faulted for having defrauded the consumers with about P30 billion
based on amount its buys from its suppliers. I am sure the suit will
bring about the revelation of more data—a development that is good
for the public.
jules42na@yahoo.com
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