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“An Analysis of Creating a Centralized Department of Housing and Urban
Development”
I.! Introduction
We cannot deny the fact that housing has a direct and has a huge impact on human
welfare. Having a decent housing is essential in order to maintain an adequate standard of
living and social inclusion. We all need a place to protect ourselves, secure our own
belongings, and create a space to share with our loved ones. On the other side of the coin,
those who live in sub-standard housing in slums, shanty towns, and poor neighbourhoods
may suffer from overcrowding, poor protection from heat, cold and rain, and inadequate
access to water, sanitation, and other services. These conditions often lead to health problem
issues. For these reasons, housing is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights as part of the right to an adequate standard of living, along with food, clothing,
medical care, and social services. As a matter of fact, housing is included in the Millennium
Development Goals, which target a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100
million slum dwellers by the year 2020 (John Doling, 2013). This will truly happen if the
different housing sectors, the different institutions of housing and our government will work
appropriately in order to attain a better housing program for our citizens.
In the Philippines, there are lots of housing institutions that provides citizen’s demands on
having a decent shelter. There are different institutions that provide housing for our soldiers,
teachers, government employees, informal settlers, etc. Also, we have different departments
and institutions that work for our people to provide them with proper and decent shelter. The
question is that, is it viable or practical to have a central department of housing here in our
country?

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A.! Purpose and Nature of the Study
This paper will argue that the viability of creating or having a centralized department of
housing and urban development is not really viable and significant here in our country,
Philippines. This will create lots of conflicts to different housing institutions and associations
because it may lead to disorder of such different systems of each institution/s. The purpose of
this study is to provide solutions and recommendations in order to make our different housing
institutions improved and enhanced. This paper will also discuss and examine the pros and
cons of having a centralized department of housing and urban development specifically the
marginalization of civil servants in each housing sector if there will be a centralized
department of housing. Moreover, this will also discuss and examine some housing
institutions and how it works. Lastly, this paper will also attempt to provide
recommendations on how to provide a better and proper system to different housing
institutions.
II.! Discussions and Analysis
A.! The National Housing and Urban Development Summit
The National Housing Summit, which shall be held in several cities throughout the
year 2015, shall be led and partnered by the Joint Committees on Housing and Urban
Development (Ejercito, 2015). The purpose of the summit is actually to bring together or
create a conglomeration together with the government, public and private sectors as well as
the civil society to collaborate towards creating a road map for addressing the housing
backlog in the Philippines. The Summit actually formed four (4) thematic groups such as:
Land and Socialized Housing, Financing, Governance, and Urban Development to
comprehensively and rigorously discuss such various issues about housing and urban

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development. Each groups has their own task and they focuses on their various fields about
the discussions on housing and urban development.
B.! Development and Urban Development
What is Development?
“Development as a long term process of structural societal transformation”
This conceptualization of development is that, development is a process of structural
societal change. This refers to this meaning of development as a process of historical change.
This view, ‘structural transformation’ and ‘long term transformation’ of economies and
society is one that predominated in the 1950s and 1960s in particular. The key characteristic
of this perspective is that it focuses on the process of structural societal change, it is historical
and it has long term outlook. This means that a major societal shift in one dimension.
(Example: shift from traditional to modern, nomads). This concept actually relates to a wide
view diverse of socio economic change. We cannot deny the fact that, all countries change
over time and generally experience economic growth and societal change. This process has
occurred over the centuries and might be generally accepted as development (Sumner, 2007).
What is Urban Development?
Urban development is actually the social, cultural, economic and physical development of
cities, as well as the underlying causes of these processes (Brattbak, 2013). As I understand
the definition of Urban development, it is actually a phenomena or if I may say, a norm in
which a certain city is developed. For me, the city is developed if the people or its citizens are
productive and has a prosperous way of living. Moreover, the city is developed if their
government, economy, and or society is functioning or doing great for the citizens and for the

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society. Lastly, I can consider a developed society if it is about being free, peaceful, and of
course a competitive society too.
C.! Senate Bill on Proposing a Central Department of Housing
Currently, there is a proposed bill by Senator Jinggoy Estrada about creating a department
of housing and urban development. The Senate Bill No. 2119, “AN ACT DEFINING THE
VISION AND POLICIES OF GOVERNMENT IN THE HOUSING AND URBAN
DEVELOPMENT SECTOR, CREATING THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND
URBAN DEVELOPMENT, DEFINING ITS MANDATE, POWERS AND
FUNCTIONS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES”, proposes to create a centralized
department of housing and urban development that will serve as the primary government
agency that will facilitate and ensure the availability of affordable housing to our people. This
department will actually work on the policies, plans, programs, and projects to have an
affordable and sustainable housing and urban development programs and projects.
As I analyse the proposed bill by Senator Estrada, I agree that creating a centralized
department of housing and urban development is essential but I think it is unattainable. It is
unattainable because there are already lots of institutions works for housing and urban
development for our people. For these reason, if there would be a new department of housing
and urban development, probably then, there would be a new system. Every institution such
as HUDCC, NHA, ADB, etc. will adopt such new system and they might have a hard time
adopting these new system.
But we cannot deny that there are advantages and disadvantages if this will happen. First,
one of the advantages of creating a centralized department of housing and urban development
is that it will be more organized. As mentioned above regarding the summit, there will be
thematic groups such as; Land and Socialized Housing, Financing, Governance, and

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Urban Development. These groups have their own task and they will actually focus on their
various fields about the discussions on housing and urban development. Second, it will be
easier for the people to ask their concerns because there will be only one and centralized
institution for housing. Lastly, if the department is under the government’s control, then it
will be easier for them to work on the betterment of housing and urban development of our
country. On the other hand, one of the primary disadvantages of having a centralized
department of housing and urban development is that of marginalization of civil servants. As
I have read the bill, there would be secretaries and under-secretaries in the department. The
question is that, what will happen to those who is in a high position in their own institutions if
they will be conglomerated to those who have high position too from other institutions?
Indeed marginalization of civil servants would probably be experienced.
III.! Conclusions and Recommendations
As a citizen here in our country, it is essential for me that these different housing
institutions especially our government must do their job properly to provide the betterment of
our citizen and the development of our country. In this last part of my study, I will be
focusing more on the system because I believe that if the system is weak, then the output is
underdeveloped. In this last part of my study, this will be arguing such recommendations on
how to strengthen such housing institutions to provide better shelter for our people.
In conceptualizing what a system is, I will be using David Easton’s concept of what really
a system is all about. In the field of political science, David Easton’s conception on what a
system or if I may say, what political system is that it actually follows the context, changes,
demands and supports, input, outputs, outcomes, feedback, interrelatedness and products of
systems thinking, including descriptions of a stable and dysfunctional systems (Easton,
1953). Inputs, outputs, and feedbacks are essential for our housing institutions. This would

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truly help to provide better transactions for them and also for our people. If this will happen,
the different housing institutions will be more productive and their output will be better.
Moreover, Easton also noted the importance of delimiting or describing precisely the
boundaries and the fluidity or changing nature of the steps in decision making. This system
model by David Easton is just one way of conceptualizing what political system is. In
addition, interaction among institutions is also essential for a system to attain a certain goal.
This interaction must be substantial and sustainable. Having substantial and sustainable goals
can really make the system in order and in proper wherein it establish tight relationship
among different institutions. Furthermore, interaction capacity is also significant wherein it
defines as a system-wide capability to maintain relationship with each other. Interaction
capacity actually describes what the institutions can do for the system. It can be by means of
communication, transportation, technology and other way of capability that makes up and
construct a system (Rod Hague, 1965).
In brief, having a centralized institution for housing and urban development is not that
essential at all. It will be better if our government will work on how the different institutions
or department of housing will become a better one in order to provide a more progression for
our people and to our society. Having a better system is more essential that will make a
certain institution progressive.
Works&Cited&
Brattbak, I. (2013, February 8). Urban Development. Retrieved August 9, 2015, from
Department of Sociology and Human Geography:
http://www.sv.uio.no/iss/english/research/subjects/urban-development/
Easton, D. (1953). The Political System: An Inquiry into the State of Political Science. In D.
Easton, The Political System: An Inquiry into the State of Political Science.

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Ejercito, S. J. (2015, March 10). Ejercito Thanks NEDA, World Bank’s Backing for National
Housing Summit. Retrieved August 9, 2015, from Senator JV Ejercito:
http://www.jvejercito.com/ejercito-thanks-neda-world-banks-backing-for-national-
housing-summit/
John Doling, P. V. (2013). Housing and Housing Finance—A Review of the Links. ADB
Economics Working Paper Series, 1-42.
Sumner. (2007, December 22). What is Development? Retrieved August 9, 2015, from
sagepub: http://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-
binaries/18296_5070_Sumner_Ch01.pdf