Vice President Jejomar Binay said Monday that there is a need to review the housing loan requirement and payment system to ensure that housing loans would benefit the poor.

Binay was the guest speaker during the first national convention of the Organization of the Socialized Housing Developers of the Philippines (OSHDP) in Davao City.

Citing carpenters, plumbers, and other poor Filipinos in the housing sector who cannot afford to buy a house of their own, Binay said there is a need for “creative capitalism.”

“In other words, continue what you’re doing but ‘stretch the reach of market forces.’ This means, for you in the business sector, make profit while doing good. And don’t be scared of the irony that you must include in your target those who in fact cannot buy houses. I think that is how to create markets. I think that is how to start revolutions,” Binay said.

“Let us restudy loan requirements and repayment terms. Review the whole system,” he added, saying that labor services of carpenters, plumbers and peons may be a good start for paying their housing loans.

“Let us set up the mechanisms. The poor homebuyers can buy with their services, the government can pay the businessmen and the developers with tax incentives. We must explore the details for this,” he said.

Binay assured that the idea is not a form of dole-out but is still a form of housing loan.

“It will not be charity or dole-out. It will be paid housing loans.

What we need is not charity but actual finance. Keep the money circulating within the system so the lending cycle continues. Because we do not want to encourage those who pretend to be poor to take advantage of the program,” he said.

He likewise urged the OSHDP to tap the new middle class, particularly the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), by strengthening the lending and collection system.

“When there is money turning around, more people can borrow, buy, and amortize houses. A strong middle class-based home ownership system will enable government, in partnership with the private sector, to address the housing needs of the less capable sectors of society,” Binay said. “A well-repaid housing loan system will bring the dream of housing closer to those who cannot pay for it.”

“That is the challenge. That is how we can build houses for those who build our houses,” he said.

Binay said the housing sector is an “economic driver” as it creates more jobs and enables more businesses to flourish.

“Without a partnership, there is no housing sector that will drive the economy. And no housing sector that will signal the hope that the economy is improving,” he said.