MANILA, Philippines — Presidential candidate Sen. Manny Pacquiao on Saturday vowed to allocate P400 billion a year for free housing for the country’s poor if elected president.
Speaking during his campaign activities in Bacoor, Cavite over the weekend, Pacquiao said he intends to “immediately” allocate P400 billion yearly, which would be downloaded to local government units to build free housing for their homeless constituents.
“I am running because I don’t want Filipinos to experience what I experienced,” Pacquiao said.
The senator said his free housing program would cover not only the informal settlers but also those who are still renting apartments, and estimated that the country’s housing backlog would be solved in the first three years of his term.
Pacquiao’s massive free housing program is a key agenda in his HEALTH (Housing, Education, Aid, Livelihood, Transportation and Technology, and Health) of the Nation policy platform.
The program is also intended to “trigger a massive construction boom nationwide that would stimulate the country’s economy and provide livelihood for millions of Filipinos.”
Apart from this, Pacquiao also declared his commitment to allocate funds as loan facilities for small businessmen, stressing that all his programs will be underwritten by his “all-out war” against corruption which he said would give the government an extra P700 billion to P1 trillion in savings.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao said his campaign sorties would continue to take place in areas where the people are poor to capitalize on sectors that he claimed fully supports him.
“My campaign is different. I don’t campaign for the rich. My campaign will be in places like this, where poor people are,” Pacquiao said during his visit in Barangay Sineguelasan.
“This is where we’ll go. Even in the most wretched places, that won’t be a problem. I came from places like that,” he added.
