OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

NATIONAL HOUSING AUTHORITY

22 February 2019

TO: ANA V. BAUL

Department Manager
Estate Management Department

SUBJECT: Proposed Subsidiary Corporation of the National Housing Authority

RE: COMMENTS ON THE PROPOSED NHA SUBSIDIARY CORPORATION IN RELATION

TO EM WORK AND MANPOWER

Under consideration is the proposed creation of a subsidiary corporation by the

National Housing Authority (NHA) which is supposed to mainly assume the latter’s power and
functions relating to the property management. The proposed subsidiary corporation shall be
under the administrative supervision by the NHA.
The main objective of its creation is to enable NHA to focus in providing housing,
assistance to the lowest thirty percent (30%) of urban income-earners through slum
upgrading, relocation of informal settler families, development of sites and services and
construction of core-housing units.
While the aim of the creation of the proposed subsidiary corporation is to facilitate
and expedite the implementation of various programs of the National Housing Authority,
some major concerns are to be addressed with care and in detail.
Foremost, it is the opinion of the undersigned that the creation of the proposed NHA
subsidiary corporation would be superfluous and redundant with the passage of Republic Act
No. 11201, An Act Creating the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development,
Defining its Mandate and Powers and Functions and Appropriating Funds Therefore. With the
advent of this law, there is a mandate to consolidate the Housing and Urban Development
Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) to
create the new department. The new department would be the sole and main planning and
policy-making, regulatory, program coordination, and performance monitoring entity for all
housing and urban development concerns, and would primarily be focused on the access to
and affordability of decent, and secure shelter. The department will also have administrative
supervision over the National Housing Authority, National Home Mortgage Finance
Corporation, Home Development Mutual Fund and Social Housing Finance Corporation. In
effect, discussing the creation of Subsidiary Corporation may render it moot and academic.
The functions of the new department and the proposed subsidiary corporation will much
likely contradict or there will be duplication if not overlapping of powers and functions.
 Additionally, with regards to the manpower of the existing Authority, the concern of
the undersigned is that there is a great possibility that the contract of service personnel
especially those who been with the NHA for so long a time, qualified to hold public office
based on their experience and Qualification Standards may be disregarded. For regular
positions particularly the Estate Management Unit may be dissolved, considering that the
creation of a subsidiary corporation will result in privatization. There will be personnel whose
positions or job descriptions are excluded in the subsidiary corporation such that with the
position structure and staffing pattern, existing positions may be abolished. Likewise, it may
remove some if not all of the emoluments/benefits the regular personnel are presently
entitled.
In fine, it is the position of the region that the proposed creation of a subsidiary
corporation is inapt and not legally necessary. Momentarily, with the enactment of Republic
Act No. 11201, “An Act Creating the Department of Human Settlements and Urban
Development, Defining its Mandate and Powers and Functions and Appropriating Funds
Therefore,” creation of the proposed NHA subsidiary corporation would be superfluous and
redundant. The functions which are supposed to be delegated to the subsidiary corporation
may be;
1. Given and designated to a particular department who will undertake to perform such
functions. In addition, there have been studies which point to the argument that distribution
of power from the mother corporation has no important impact on economic growth.
2. The creation of a new subsidiary corporation certainly will entail time, additional resources,
without assurance that its functions will be properly performed and delivered.
3. Such creation, may remove some if not all of the emoluments/benefits the regular
personnel are presently entitled.

RIZALDE A. MEDIVILLO
Officer-in-charge – REGION VIII