CHIEF Executive Officer and Commissioner Romulo Q. Fabul of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) has approved Naga City’s request for exemption from securing Certificate of Registration (CR) and License to Sell (LS) for its mass housing projects that cater to the urban poor sector.

        In his letter to the Sangguniang Panlungsod dated 04 August 2008, Commissioner Fabul has “opined that the City Government of Naga does not need to apply for and secure CR/LS from the Board because its prospective land development is beyond the scope or coverage of PD 957.”

        Much earlier, on March 4, 2008, the Sangguniang Panlungsod has adopted Resolution No. 2008-082 authored by Councilor Nathan Sergio, requesting the HLURB to extend to LGU Naga the same privilege being granted to the National Housing Authority in so far as securing the Board’s CR and LS is concerned.

        The Sanggunian believes that being a local government unit, which has been, and still is, at the forefront of housing delivery for more than a decade since the enactment of RA 7160 and RA 7279, LGU Naga is like NHA and thus, it must not be treated in the same way with private housing developers.

        According to Councilor Sergio, this grant of exemption by the HLURB Main Office is more than just an incentive for an LGU actively participating in the national government’s thrust of addressing the ever increasing housing backlog in the country. “More importantly, this exemption from securing CR and LS will greatly facilitate issuance of land titles for urban poor beneficiaries who have fully paid their homelots under the city’s Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Program”, Sergio added.

        Furthermore, Sergio stressed that the grant of exemption would significantly shorten the whole process by two months and would relieve the city from a lot of things, like the preparation and submission of a lot of documents to the HLURB Regional Office in Legazpi City, the payment of a considerable sum representing standard fees (registration, inspection, & LRS) plus the charge of P20.00 per lot, and the required publication expense.

        fThe Sanggunian Panlungsod, during its regular session last Tuesday, had tasked Councilor Sergio to coordinate with the HLURB Regional Office and the Office of the Register of Deeds for Naga City for the realization of this exemption. Sergio is the Chairman the city’s Housing Board and the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committees on Land Use and on Urban Poor Affairs.