May 07, 2009 07:18 PM Thursday [ journal.com.ph ]
By: Jester P. Manalastas
THE House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading HB 6098 or the Rent Control Act of 2009 which seeks to regulate the rental and residential units leased by tenants.
Voting unanimously in favor of the bill, the members stressed the need to protect tenants from unreasonable rent increases especially during the global financial crisis.
The main authors of the bill are Speaker Prospero Nograles and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia.
“We will continue to fast track socio-economic safety nets to protect the millions of low-income Filipino families from the global recession griping even the strongest of economies,” Nograles said.
Under the measure, owners of residential units cannot raise rents for a period of one year from the effectivity date.
After a year, the rent of any residential unit shall not be increased by more than 4 percent annually as long as the unit is occupied by the same lessee.
The bill covers all residential units in the National Capital Region and other highly urbanized cities. The National Statistics Office said there are 1.582 million families renting residential units, 97 percent of which are paying a rent of P10,000 per month.
Of this number, 47 percent are in Metro Manila.
____________________________________________________________________________________