Lilac Center asks HLURB to run after homeowners associations failing to register

POLICY research and advocacy group Lilac Center for Public Interest urged the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) to come down hard on homeowners’ associations that fail to provide assistance to local government units in the registration of domestic workers of members and homeowners in their jurisdiction.

“Homeowners’ associations are mandated by law to help implement local and national government policies, programs, rules, and ordinances in the interest of development,” Lilac Center President Nicon Fameronag said, citing provisions of R.A. 9904, otherwise known as the “Magna Casta for Homeowners’ Associations.”

The HLURB Board issued the resolution on May 3, 2017 upon the lobbying of the DILG, domestic workers’ groups, trade unions, and civil society. The resolution also members or not of homeowners’ associations, to submit the list of all domestic workers they employ, with the obligation to update the said list in cases of the hiring of new domestic workers or the separation from employment of domestic workers already listed.

“The Batas Kasambahay was enacted to make domestic work decent and formal and to ensure domestic workers of their rights, freedoms, and privileges as domestic workers,” Fameronag said.