DBP’s dream: fulfill others’ dreams

Written by Rizal Raoul Reyes / Correspondent

Wednesday, 10 December 2008 19:15

FROM left, DBP’s Rey David, Gov. Irineo Maliksi and R-II Builders’ Reghis Romero sign the agreement for the mass-housing project. FOR 49-year-old Concepcion Corus, owning a home is a very exhilarating experience. In her testimony during the signing of a term-loan agreement for a mass housing project with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Cavite Gov, Irineo Maliksi and R-II Builders Reghis Romero II, she tearfully narrated her family’s ordeal in moving six times to find a home for 21 years. “My husband, myself and our five children have undergone traumatic experiences from one place to another to find a home. We transferred houses six times in 21 years principally for economic reasons,” said the hospital administrative assistant at the Kawit Kalayaan Hospital. When she learned that the provincial government opened a mass-housing project for the poor in Cavite, she immediately applied, hoping to realize a fond dream to own a house. At that time, Corus said she was staying in her sister’s house. “Because of my plight, I applied for the mass housing initiated by Governor Maliksi,” she said. At Maliksi’s recent birthday bash, Corus was one of recipients of the housing program. To make her Christmas celebration, Romero said the Corus family can now move to their new abode before Christmas Day. “Now that we have a place we can call our own, we don’t have to be worried about being kicked out and having to look for another place,” she said in Filipino. Reynaldo David, president and chief executive officer of the DBP, said the recent partnership in the Cavite mass housing project indicates that the bank and the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders Association (Creba) pursue a common vision. “It is doing business with a social conscience, promoting national growth and economic stability, building partnerships with all sectors to foster national development and nation-building,” said David. David said DBP wants to get more involved in socialized housing. The bank aims to get the ball rolling faster, so to speak, by “facilitating access” and promoting an “inclusive shelter-related financing program for the informal sector.” This signals to the business community, he explained, that “investments for shelter to the informal sector can be a viable and socially responsive investment project.” David said the Cavite socialized housing project is significant because it happens to be the largest housing project for the bank aimed at informal settlers. “The objectives of this project sit very well with our own mandate as a development financing institution—as a Bank for sustainable progress, we do not only promote the process of development, we are also bent on ensuring that its benefits trickle down to those who need them more,” he said. For Corus, owning a home restored her self esteem. “It gave me and my family dignity,” she said.