Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 8 No. 4 - Editorial
Housing Has The Answer
by Nonette C. Climaco

If there is one industry that has the ability to affect – positively or negatively – a host of other industries, it is the housing industry. The housing industry has more than a hundred ancillary industries, from the most basic materials as cement, iron and steel, and paint to finishing materials such as woodworks, toilet and bath fixtures, cabinets, and others. A booming housing industry brings along with it all these allied industries. But the same happens when the industry goes on a downturn.

The government understands, just too well, the role that the industry can play in helping to pump-prime the economy. President Arroyo has identified the industry as one of her priority areas, alongside education, jobs, and food security.

But in identifying housing as a priority area, government also hopes to offer a solution to an ever perennial problem of providing shelter to the country’s disadvantaged sector. A natural by-product of homelessness is squatting, which according to studies, has been increasing at an annual rate of 11%. In Metro Manila alone, there are an estimated 2.5 million squatter families.

Amidst this seemingly gigantic social problem, it is heartening to note that a number of private sector groups have initiated projects to provide shelter to the homeless. As written by our Managing Editor, Maureen Macaraig in the Corporate Citizenship section, Habitat for Humanity’s project has enjoyed strong support from the corporate sector. Initially, the Philippine partner of Habitat, targetted building 100 houses but the response was so overwhelming from the business community and the governmentthat the project ended up building 250 houses this year. In fact, our featured executive in CEO Interviews, Sandy Prieto-Romualdez, enthusiastically talked about her company’s — Philippine Daily Inquirer – involvement and full support to the project during the interview.

So the next time you think about the housing sector, you can think of it as the industry that can ignite the engines of the economy and at the same time help solve one social problem.