SHFC Delivers Hope to Flood-Hit Communities With Land Titles

While relentless monsoon rains kept much of the country on edge, dozens of families in Baguio City and Nueva Vizcaya had a reason to celebrate. The Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) handed over land titles that many of them had waited years, and in some cases decades, to finally hold in their hands. For beneficiaries used to bracing for bad news whenever the skies turn gray, this milestone made the moment feel even sweeter.

SHFC Speeds Up Land Title Distribution Across Northern Luzon

SHFC’s North Luzon Group awarded 27 Transfer Certificates of Title to the Samahang Nagkakaisa ng Brgy. Roxas Homeowners Association in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, on August 12. The ceremony followed closely on the heels of another handover just a week earlier, when 43 titles went to members of Blooming Hills Homeowners Association Phase II in Baguio City on August 5.

Both associations secured their titles through the Community Mortgage Program (CMP), one of several housing initiatives SHFC runs under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program. The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), led by Secretary Jose Ramon Aliling, oversees the broader housing push that the CMP falls under. The program also marks its 38th anniversary this year, built specifically to help organized groups of low-income Filipinos acquire and develop land collectively rather than individually.

Aliling said bringing the ceremonies directly to the communities reflects President Marcos’s push to make government services more accessible, so beneficiaries don’t have to travel far or navigate red tape just to claim what’s rightfully theirs. SHFC North Luzon Group Vice President Jones Tomas and DHSUD-Cordillera Administrative Region Director Antonette Anaban led the on-site awarding, underscoring the growing coordination between the two agencies as they work to fast-track land tenure for more Filipino families.

Baguio and Nueva Vizcaya Families Mark a Long-Awaited Milestone

For the families involved, the wait has been long by any measure. Samahang Nagkakaisa ng Brgy. Roxas, which represents 301 families, first secured its lot acquisition loan from SHFC back in 1998. Blooming Hills HOA Phase II, made up of 216 members, followed a decade later, landing loan approval in 2008. Getting from approval to an actual title in hand took years of patience for both groups.

SHFC President and CEO Federico Laxa said the ceremony offered a genuine source of hope for beneficiaries in Northern Luzon, especially given the difficult weather conditions battering the region. “Sa kabila ng malalakas na ulan, may magandang balita pa rin para sa ating mga benepisyaryo,” he said. “Ang mga titulong matagal nilang hinihintay ay nasa kanilang mga kamay na ngayon.”

These two communities join a much larger group of beneficiaries nationwide. More than 300,000 families have received support through the CMP since its establishment in 1988, and SHFC is marking the program’s 38th year with the theme “Bahay, Buhay, Magandang Kinabukasan.” More title-awarding ceremonies are already scheduled in the coming weeks, officials say, as SHFC and DHSUD continue rolling out the Expanded 4PH Program to additional communities across the country.