MANILA — The Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Program (4PH), aimed to address the country's housing backlog, has started to take off in Metro Manila.

During the Metro Manila Council (MMC) meeting held on Wednesday at the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority headquarters in Pasig City on Wednesday, Housing Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar said the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD) has 170,000 units or 55 projects in different locations in Metro Manila that are currently in construction.

The 4PH program is the government's flagship program designed to address the need for decent housing. Informal settlers will be temporarily relocated to the government staging areas for at least two years while the 4PH project is under construction. They will be permanently transferred to their new housing areas once completed.

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Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos said LGUs in Metro Manila have a big role in identifying idle government lands that can be used for the government’s housing program and staging areas that will serve as temporary shelters.

“The informal settler families will not be displaced as we plan in-city relocation,” said Abalos.

MMDA Acting Chairman Don Artes, who presided over the MMC meeting, said the Metro Manila mayors will provide an inventory of informal settler families in their jurisdiction. They will also identify government-owned open spaces suitable for staging sites.

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“We will create a Technical Working Group that will be closely working together for the submission of LGUs’ inventories of all available and suitable lands for the program,” said Artes.

For his part, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora, MMC president, assured the program Metro Manila’s cooperation.

“It is my vision for San Juan to be Informal Settler Families-free, and this project is an opportunity to make it possible and provide the ISFs with decent housing all over Metro Manila,” Zamora also said.

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Zamora said the LGUs can also give incentives to owners who will allow the use of their idle properties as staging areas.