Luzon Group (Regions CAR, 1, 2, 3, 4A, 4B, 5 and Legal Services Group of C.O.) with CoRe Group personnel & HLURB Commissioners: Ms. Belen Nicasio, Mr. Tristan Besa, Mr. Francisco O. Ramirez Jr., Comm. Ria Corazon A. Golez-Cabrera, Ms. Annabelle Abaya & Comm. Romulo Q. Fabul

HLURB has successfully adopted mediation as an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process through a pilot program in year 2006.

As special project in 2009, HLURB hired CoRe Group again as implementer and facilitator of the capacity–building program consisting of:

CLASSROOM TRAINING which is a 5-day 40-hour seminar on 31 August 2009 to September 4, 2009 at Phinma Training Center in Tagaytay City. The training consisted of the discussions on conflict, responses to conflict and retaliatory cycle of conflict, non-adversarial communication and principles of distributive negotiation. Reflections and debriefing of all the events and activities were also done during the training.

FISHBOWL EXERCISES/CERTIFICATION consisting of written and practical examinations (role playing) were conducted during the internship period.

INTERNSHIP which was conducted on September 7 to 18, 2009 at the Mediation Building of HLURB, Kalayaan Avenue, DIliman, Quezon City. The participants handled actual cases and ran through the mediation process under the supervision of the CoRe Group personnel.

Visayas Group (Regions 6, 7, & 8 ) with CoRe Group and HLURB Commissioners

The 30 regional staff participants in the said training were as follows:

1. Araceli P. Capulso from ENCR
2. Arminda M. Seva from Region 5
3. Artemio A. Solis from Region 13
4. Bernardita S. Tumulak from Region 7
5. Celina B. Kahanding from C.O. Legal Services Group
6. Charito A. Raagas from Region 10
7. Clarito A. Jimenez from Region 10
8. Eden A. Santiago from Region 11
9. Elizabeth C. Bandojo from Region 4B
10. Eva B. Balisnomo from Region 5
11. Eufemia C. Santos from Region 1
12. Gelzar A. Almira from Region 6
13. Godofredo A. Gulane, Jr. from Region 7
14. Harry Christian V. Nool from CAR
15. Jamelon A. Bellosillo from Region 6
16. James L. Reyes from Region 2
17. Jed S. Pague from Region 11
18. Jo Anne D. Labsan from Region 1
19. Jorge T. Balagtas from Region 3
20. Jose A. Atencio, Jr. from Region 3
21. Leonides Q. Gaitera from Region 4A
22. Lourdes A. Nacino from Region 13
23. Maria Nenita E. Acuna from Region 9
24. Maria Theresa C. Galvez from Region 13
25. Michael F. de Nava from C.O. Legal Services Group
26. Rafauls D. Imbing from Region 9
27. Remedios N. Rosalita from Region 12
28. Rosario N. Lavapie from Region 4B
29. Susan P. Celo from Region 12 and
30. Tedelino E. Guillermo from Region 8

Mindanao Group (Regions 9, 10, 11, 12, & 13) with CoRe Group and HLURB Commissioners

The Closing/Graduation Exercises of the Mediation Training Course took place at the University Hotel, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City on October 22, 2009.

The move came on the heels of the directive of Vice-President and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Chairman Noli De Castro to all key shelter agencies to enhance their public assistance/service to their respective clients and to ensure that all inquiries and complaints are attended to. Specifically, VP De Castro put the Board to task amid complaints by prospective homebuyers, particularly Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), who fell prey to unscrupulous real estate developers, brokers and contractors.

Real estate activity has been on the upswing over the past six years attributive to the country’s stable economy and the systemic reforms implemented by government housing agencies. Its growth was further buoyed by the strong production and sales of residential developments in subdivisions and high-rise condominium projects fueled by the significant contributions of the remittances of overseas Filipino workers and Filipino immigrants. (Click the image to view graphical representation of Licenses to Sell Issued for CY 2001-2006)

This positive development has apparently caught the attention of some developers with ill motives who pounced on the opportunity by resorting to pre-selling. That is marketing the lot or house or unit even before starting the project or while it is under construction.

A lot of people buy during this pre-selling stage because the prices are lower and the rates are better since the developer need not add a premium for the cost of his money. But the trade off is that the risks of non-completion are higher too.

As this developed, the vice-president urged the regulatory agency to focus on the tightening the monitoring of housing projects, strengthening its arbitration and mediation functions and speeding up the resolution of cases.

He has also ordered stricter monitoring of developers’ compliance with the 20% balanced housing requirement and violation of housing regulations.

Noting that many buyers are suffering unnecessarily due to lack of knowledge about investment in the real estate business, the Board launched an information drive to increase public awareness and to help buyers make intelligent decisions without falling into unsuspecting tricks and traps that normally follow deals of this nature.

To achieve its purpose, the agency has set up the following: Public Assistance Desk (PAD) at HLURB Central and its 16 Regional Field Office (RFO), Suggestion/Complaint Boxes in areas where clients transact business, and Work/Process Flowcharts of requirements for different transactions. Other forms of information vehicles have also been used such as primers or flyers printed in English or Tagalog for dissemination to the public at PADs, updated office website www.hlurb.gov.ph), and an 8 A.M.- 5 P..M. Hotline (926 67 82) except on Saturdays and Sundays. The Board has also designated talking-heads for radio-TV interviews.



click image to go to GIS Cookbook Website

On December 4 at the Shangri La Hotel Makati, the GIS Guidebook was officially launched. Among the invited guests were the Vice President of the Philippines, Honorable Noli DeCastro and the Ambassador of Sweden, Her Excellency Inger Ultvedt and other key officials of participating National Government Agencies and private companies. During the sign-off ceremony speeches were given by the Vice President, the Ambassador of Sweden, the CEO of HLURB, Atty. Romulo Q.M. Fabul and Mr Ciriaco Calinisan, Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator, Laurel Batangas.

The CEO of HLURB mentioned in his speech that with the onset of GIS, he hopes to change both the pace at which the CLUP is done and the attitude of our LGUs towards adopting a CLUP.

The Ambassador spoke about that this is an important project and that she is proud that Sweden has been able to participate in it, thereby also contributing to reducing poverty in the Philippines. It is her hope that the GIS cookbook will be of use for the relevant Philippine authorities and population for many years to come, thereby proving to be a good investment both for Sweden and for the Philippines.

Finally in the Vice President’s speech, he told the audience that the launching of the CLUP GIS guidebook is a major step that modernizes the process of formulating, preparing and updating comprehensive land use plans in all local government units across the country.

A plaque of appreciation was given to the two study Municipalities, The municipality of Laurel, Batangas and the City of Ormoc, Leyte. All the invited guests were given a cd containing a soft copy of the Guidebook while the LGUs who attended were given a printed copy of the Guidebook, as well.
A symbolic presentation of the” Cookbook” was presented to the League of Municipalities, League of Cities and to the League of Provinces symbolizing that it is ready to be used as their tool in CLUP preparation.

Visit GIS Cookbook Website

As the anniversary fell on a Sunday and May 14 was Election Day, the management handed out the awards on May 17 in a simple rites held at the Rembrandt Hotel, Quezon City. The event coincided with the Board’s Regional Planning Conference.

Comm. Romulo Q. Fabul, VP Noli De Castro and Awardee

Vice-President and HUDCC Chairman Noli De Castro was the guest of honor and among those who graced the occasion were HLURB Chief Executive Officer Romulo Q. Fabul, Commissioners Teresita A. Disierto, Jesus Y. Pang, Arturo M. Dublado, HLURB Regional Officers and division heads and awardees both in the national and regional levels.

Comm. Romulo Q. Fabul

“The 2007 Real Estate Development Awards (REDA) is our way of recognizing the efforts and initiatives of all our partners in the housing industry”, said CEO Fabul in his welcome remark. “This is also our way of thanking those who have responded to the call of the vice-president to help millions of Filipinos fulfill their dream of owning a home,” he added.

The Awardees

This year’s awardees were selected based on the criteria set by a committee formed by the four commissioners. The same committee was instructed to undertake the following activities:

1. identify possible awards that may be given to deserving real estate developers
2. determine parameters and other guidance for the search and evaluation of nominees for the awards
3. coordinate the implementation of the search for awardees
4. determine list of awardees based on approved guidelines
5. submit for approval of the EXCOM award categories and corresponding parameters/guidelines as well as list of awardees identified

Regular awards at the regional and national levels were given for the following categories:

• Socialized Housing
  1. Lot only project
  2. House and lot package project
• Economic Housing
  1. Lot only project
  2. House and lot project
• Open Market Housing Project
  1. Open Market Housing Project
• Condominium
  1. Open Market Condominium Project
  2. Medium Cost Condominium Project

Criteria for the regular awards are as follows:

• The developer/owner with the most number of licensed units from January 2004 to December 2006;
• Must have no final adverse unsatisfied judgment or order issued by HLURB; and
• Must have a least three years track record. (Meaning the developer must be engaged in the business since 2003)

Three special awards were given to completed projects, regardless of adverse cases filed against the project/owner of the project. These were:

1. Best development design (for horizontal development)
2. Best architectural design (for vertical development)
3. Outstanding residential development project.</quote>

For the first two special awards (a & b), the following critea were applied:

• innovativeness
• environmental friendliness
• quality of actual development

On the other hand, the basic considerations for the outstanding residential development project (c) are:

• affordability (reasonable price)
• accessibility (location)
• saleability (marketability)
• completeness and quality of development.

The contenders for the national awards for each of the seven (7) categories were the awardees at the regional level.

HLURB Regional Officers were requested to submit their regional awardees for the various categories indicating (1) the number of licensed units with the project(s) covered by the License to Sell (2) the year it has started in the development of projects and (3) that it has no final unsatisfied judgment or order as per your record.

For the special awards, regional officers were likewise requested to submit their nominees together with a copy of the project development/architectural plans, descriptions and justifications of why the project should be considered for the specific award.

The deadline for the submission of nominees for the national and special awards was set on March 31, 2007.

Click here to view the complete list of winners

How the Guidebook was Developed

This Guide was developed for LGUs and was formulated with their genuine participation, through the various consultative meetings/workshops and surveys conducted nationwide. It is structured to provide the users with detailed and logical planning procedures aimed at ensuring a balanced and harmonious development of resources towards achieving an improved quality of life as defined in the vision.

Click here to download file in pdf

Mr. Christer Kjörneberg, Project Technical Adviser, Swedesurvey; Ms. Emma Marilyn C. Ulep, Project Leader, HLURB; Mr. Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI; Mr. Romulo Q. Fabul, CEO, HLURB

The Award was presented at the ESRI’s 26th Annual User Conference held in San Diego, August 7–11, and is being given to users around the world in recognition of their outstanding work in the GIS field.

It is a significant evidence of HLURB’s continuous effort to encourage the LGUs in the Philippines to use effective planning tools such as GIS. The Conference is a massive gathering of GIS practitioners all over the world and was attended by more than 14,000 attendees from more than 180 countries. During the Conference, the Project Leader, Ms. Ulep read a paper and there was also a display about the Project.

A ‘coincidence’ is that the Project Technical Adviser, Mr. Kjorneberg from Swedesurvey, has assisted not only the award winner HLURB but also Buffalo City Municipality that was awarded last year.

The Provincial Physical Framework Plan of the Province of Camarines Norte was presented by Architect Modanna Abular, the Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator, representing Gov. Jesus O. Typoco Jr., before the members of the HLURB Board during its regular meeting held last July 10, 2006. No less than the Hon. Vice President, Noli L. De Castro, also Secretary and Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) respectively, presided over the regular meeting.

Ms. Donna Abular (upper right) presenting the Provincial Physical Framework Plan before the members of the Board.

Read more

The activity was made possible through the collaborative partnership with the National Center for Transport Studies (NCTS) headed by Prof. Alfredo B. Juinio, Jr. and Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) represented by the Consultant, Dr. Kunlaki Sasaki. NCTS in particular shared the expertise/resource without any form of remuneration.

The following pool of experts unselfishly shared their knowledge during the training: Dr. Cresencio M. Montalbo, Jr., Dr. Jose Regin Regidor, Dr. Noriel Christopher C. Tiglao, Dr. Ricardo G. Sigua, Dr. Karl N. Vergel, Dr. Shielah G. Napalang.

This JICA funded the 4-day training was completed in March 2006 and covered the following topics, among others:

• Fundamentals of Traffic Assessment (TIA); Process, content/s parts of TIA Report
• TIA Process in Japan
• Overview of Transportation Planning Process
• Basic Transport and Traffic Surveys
• Rapid Assessment Tool
• Basic Road Design
• Traffic Flow Analysis
• Traffic Mitigating Measures: Transportation System Management/Travel Demand Management (TSM/TDM) and Measures of Effectiveness
• Issues and Challenges in the Implementation of the TIA Requirement
• Preparation of Evaluators’ Checklist Using a Test TIA Report
• Pilot Testing Evaluators’ Checklist Using an Actual Report

The training was primarily intended to build the capability of HLURB technical staff in evaluating the TIA submissions as part of the requirement for developing residential subdivisions 30 hectares and above. In particular it is pursuant to Section 5.A.12 and Section 10.B.12 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Presidential Decree (PD) 957 and Batas Pambansa (BP) 220 respectively.

The HLURB hopes to disseminate the newly acquired technical skill on TIA to the Local Government Units in collaboration with NCTS as part of the Board’s continuing technical assistance programs on real estate development and management.

View more photos

The Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) XI headed by regional director Roy T. Lopez will make sure the investors know where to invest or put their money by coming up with a guideline for them specially in the area of real estate.

The guideline is spelled out in a brochure to be distributed to the delegates at the Davao International Airport (DIA) and at the hotels where they will be staying for the duration of the nine-day tourism conclave.

The brochure, a joint undertaking by the HLURB XI, the city government of Davao and the Bureau of Immigration XI, also includes the list of the nine preferred investment areas as identified by the Davao City Planning and Development Office.

The preferred investment areas are agri-business and food processing, tourism and recreational facilities, transshipment facilities, miscellaneous light manufacturing activities, property development, establishment of foreign bank branches, telecommunications, environmental enhancement and protection projects, and medical, educational, training and sports facilities.

Based on the guidelines set by HLURB XI, investors intending to invest or buy real estate property from among the residential, commercial, industrial and farm lot subdivision prjects in the region need to inquire/ask the agent, broker, developer or owners of these properties the following: a. original copy of
preliminary approval and locational clearance/development permit from the local government unit where the property is located; b. original copy of approved subdivision plan which bears the Sangguniang Panlungsod/Sangguniang Bayan resolution number and marked as “Approved Development Permit;” c. original copy of certificate of registration and
license to sell issued by the HLURB office.

The buyers must also check the authenticity of the title of the subject property by acquiring a certified true copy from the Register of Deeds to determine if the property has no encumbrances with any financing institutions such as mortgaged to the bank or used as bank collateral.

Based on the figure released by the HLURB XI, there are 55 subdivision projects which were granted with certificate of registration/license to sell within Region XI covering the period 2003-2005.

Thirty of these projects are located in Davao City, 12 in Davao del Norte, six in Davao del Sur, four in Compostela Valley, two in the Island Garden City of Samal and one in Davao Oriental.

The HLURB XI is hoping that with this guideline, delegates to the ASEAN Tourism Forum will be guided accordingly as they search for business opportunities throughout the big tourism event to take place in the City of Durian.

Around 3,000 delegates, with the bulk coming from big Philippine markets like Japan, China, Korea and North America are expected to hit town for the ATF, which is celebrating its silver anniversary with the theme: “Celebrating The Many Faces of Asean.”

Asian Tourism Forum Brochure
outer inner

To view CR/LS issued from 2003 – 2005 HLURB RFO XI Click here

rtlopez2005

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