CREBA builds up preparation for Iloilo national convention

The Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Associations Inc. ( CREBA) is gaining ground on drawing the support of government and industry movers in the forthcoming national convention in Iloilo this week.

“All roads lead to the SMX Convention Center in the City of Smiles (Bacolod City) on Oct. 7 to 10 for this fourday event involving CREBA members and guests from all over the Philippines,” CREBA national president Noel Toti M. Cariño said.

The event will feature plenary and breakout sessions, fellowship nights, guided tours, business-matching activities, and presentations on market trends, product development technologies, government plans and policies, and emerging opportunities, all geared towards providing a home to every Filipino.

“Ranged against that vision, however, is a 5.5-million housing backlog that both the government and the industry have to surmount within the next 20 years,” CREBA national chairman Charlie A.V. Gorayeb pointed out.

“Overcoming such a deficit requires the industry to produce at least 500,000 housing units a year. And to be able to implement it, CREBA has been seeking a comprehensive government policy reform program that will establish long-term and affordable funds for socialized and economic housing; affordable homes for employees in urban areas; lands for residential, commercial and industrial development; efficient local government housing regulations; and a full- fledged Department of Housing and Urban Development,” Gorayeb explained.

This five-point agenda being espoused by CREBA has been drafted into various bills to amend, rationalize, streamline and beef up existing laws on housing.

“A major step in that direction is this CREBA national convention, where all the concerned sectors will be gathered under one roof to pull their acts together,” Cariño added.

Housing committee heads in Congress Rep. Alfredo B. Benitez and Sen. Joseph Victor G. Ejercito, and other local government officials, are among those joining the national convention as guest speakers.

Also supporting this year’s convention with the theme “A Home for Every Filipino: The Dream Goes On” are leading industry players