Councilor seeks perk for private social housing

A Cebu City councilor wants to grant a transfer tax exemption to all socialized housing program beneficiaries who have fully paid for their obligations, including those undertaken by accredited private entities.

During last week’s session, Councilor Eugenio Gabuya Jr., chairman of the local housing board, filed a draft ordinance to amend City Ordinance (CO) 227.

Approved in 2011, CO 227 grants transfer tax exemption to all beneficiaries of the City’s socialized housing programs, provided that they have fully paid for their obligations.

At that time, there were four socialized housing programs in the city. These were the Cityowned Rehabilitation of Estates; City Housing and Acquisition of Privately-owned Lots; Acquisition and Disposition of Relocation Sites; and the City as an Originator of the Community Mortgage Program.

Gabuya, though, wants to expand the ordinance’s coverage.

“The stated tax exemptions do not include socialized housing programs undertaken by private entities in cooperation with the City Government or private entities accredited to undertake the same,” reads a portion of his proposed amendment.

He added that doing so will strengthen public-private partnerships and will help address “opportunity gaps” that homeless and low-income families face. Under Gabuya’s draft legislation, the mayor will be authorized through a resolution approved by the council to grant transfer tax exemptions to private developers engaged in socialized housing projects, as accredited by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.

His proposed ordinance was referred to the committee on laws for their comment.