VICE PRESIDENT and Housing Secretary Noli de Castro and House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. agreed to push after the election a nationwide mass housing program that will build one million houses for the first year alone.

They firmed up the agreement when they met in Manila on Tuesday during which De Castro also took the opportunity to declare his support for the reelection bid of de Venecia as congressman of the fourth district of Pangasinan.

This came few days after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats chairman; and former President Fidel Ramos, party chairman emeritus, jointly endorsed de Venecia’s reelection bid for a third term of office.

De Venecia called for a news conference on Wednesday at the Leisure Coast Resort in Bonuan Binloc, Dagupan City to inform the media of major developments in the housing front soon following his meeting on Tuesday with the vice president.

The two national officials believed that such effort will complement the work of the Gawad Kalinga, a successful civil society initiative in building houses for homeless Filipinos.

De Castro and de Venecia said that uppermost in their political priority, next to education, is mass housing to fill up the current housing backlog in the country today which is from three to four million.

With mass housing that seeks to build one million houses per year, there would be from five to six million jobs to be created yearly.

De Venecia said this is because in building a house an average of from five to six laborers would be needed.