Duterte to consult Congress leaders on appointment of human settlements department chief

President Rodrigo Duterte is not keen on appointing the secretary of the newly created Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development anytime soon.

Duterte said appointing a person to head the department would be a “long shot” for now because he needed to consult Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Senator Aquilino Pimentel III about the matter.

“Mabuti na gusto nila ‘yung tao para he can receive a better reception, you know kung kilala nila ang tao,” the President told reporters in Malacañang on Friday.

Appointments to Cabinet posts, especially those in charge of line agencies, require the consent of the powerful Commission on Appointments, a body composed of select senators and congressmen.

Signed by Duterte on February 14, Republic Act 11201 orders the consolidation of 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.

Under the law, the department would be composed of the Office of the Secretary, three undersecretaries and assistant secretaries each, and the Bureaus of Environmental, Land Use, and Urban Planning and Development; Housing and Real Estate Development Regulation; and Homeowners Association and Community Development.

The department will have administrative supervision over the National Housing Authority, National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation, Home Development Mutual Fund and Social Housing Finance Corporation.

The measure also orders the creation of the National Human Settlements Board to address housing policies and plans, as well as the transfer of the adjudicatory function of the HLURB to the Human Settlements Adjudication Commission.—LDF, GMA News