In a formal address to the Senate Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement, CRB Carla Calleja, National President of the Real Estate Brokers Association of the Philippines (REBAP), laid out a clear, urgent case against recent DHSUD policy changes that centralize housing approvals in Metro Manila. Representing 54 chapters and thousands of licensed brokers nationwide, REBAP frames the issue not as a bureaucratic technicality but as a real-world problem that is delaying projects, raising costs, and disadvantaging small provincial developers who build affordable homes.
CRB Calleja explains how DHSUD Memorandum Circular No. 2025-14 shifted approval authority away from regional offices—lengthening processing times by months, increasing travel and courier expenses, and stalling housing projects that leave families waiting. A partial amendment in 2026 restored limited regional evaluation but left final approval centralized, a change REBAP says perpetuates inequity and concentrates power where resources and connections already favor large developers.
The address closes with five concrete requests to the Committee: suspend the circular and review it with stakeholders; restore full regional authority; digitalize the registration and license-to-sell process with public tracking; legislate enforceable timelines and stronger protections for licensed practitioners; and require genuine consultation before issuing housing policy. This post summarizes REBAP’s position, the human impact behind the numbers, and why restoring regional authority matters for transparency, fairness, and the Filipino homebuyer.
Read full speech below:
Good morning, Honorable Chairman and distinguished Members of the Senate Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement. I am Carla Calleja, National President of the Real Estate Brokers Association of the Philippines, Inc. — REBAP. We are the only nationwide organization exclusively composed of licensed real estate brokers — with 54 chapters in every region of this country. 58% of our members handle subdivision and project selling. Most of our members hold multiple PRC licenses. Many are appraisers, consultants, and assessors, in addition to being brokers.
We did not build REBAP on legislation. We built it on education — on teaching our members to live by four values: Integrity, Competence, Reliability, and Ethical Responsibility. It is from that foundation that we stand before you today.
We are here because of DHSUD Memorandum Circular No. 2025-14 — and we are here not as adversaries of our respected government, but as professionals who have seen, firsthand, what this circular has done to the communities and clients we serve.
In November 2025, DHSUD issued MC No. 2025-14, centralizing all processing and approval of Certificates of Registration and Licenses to Sell at the Central Office in Metro Manila — removing the authority that Regional Offices had long held under Section 23 of Republic Act No. 11201, DHSUD’s own enabling law.
The intent, we are told, was to standardize processes and address corruption. We understand that intent. But the result has been the opposite. Processing time for a License to Sell has increased by 60 to 90 days. Developers — particularly small players in the provinces, — are now spending fifteen to thirty thousand pesos per application just on travel and courier costs. At least three housing projects in the Bicol Region have been delayed, affecting over 200 families who are waiting for homes that cannot be legally sold because the License to Sell is still somewhere in a pile in Manila. One of our members from a provincial chapter put it simply: “Taon na, pero ang LS wala pa rin.” A year has passed, and there is still no License to Sell.
In February 2026, DHSUD issued MC No. 2026-003, a partial amendment that restored a limited evaluation function to Regional Offices. We acknowledge that as a step. But the final approving authority remains at the Central Office. The core problem is unchanged.
And our members have raised a concern that goes deeper than delay. When all decisions are concentrated at one desk in one office in Metro Manila, large developers with resources and connections in the capital will always have an advantage. Small provincial developers — the ones building affordable homes in Legazpi, in Dagupan, in Tacloban — cannot compete. Centralization does not eliminate corruption. It relocates it.
Honorable Chairman, REBAP respectfully makes five requests of this Committee.
First — direct DHSUD to immediately suspend the implementation of MC No. 2025-14 and conduct a comprehensive, stakeholder-inclusive review.
Second — restore full processing and approval authority to the Regional Offices, as Section 23 of Republic Act No. 11201 requires.
Third — mandate the digitalization of the CR/LS process, with a publicly accessible tracking portal so that applicants — wherever they are in this country — can follow the status of their application in real time.
Fourth — consider legislation that codifies enforceable processing timelines, aligns DHSUD accreditation renewal with the PRC three-year cycle, and strengthens Republic Act No. 9646 to fully protect licensed real estate practitioners.
And fifth — require DHSUD to conduct genuine consultative dialogue with the industry, with Local Government Units, and with its own Regional Offices before issuing or amending any housing regulatory policy.
We have submitted our comprehensive position paper to this Committee, together with the specific recommendations of our member-brokers from across 54 chapters. We stand ready to provide any additional documentation this Committee may require.
REBAP comes in service of the Filipino homebuyers deserve a housing regulatory system that works — one that is fast, transparent, accessible, and grounded in the law.
Protect the Filipino homebuyer, yung totoong proteksyon. Restore regional authority. Uphold the law. On behalf of the Real Estate Brokers Association of the Philippines and our 54 chapters nationwide we represent — Maraming salamat po Mr Chair.
On behalf of the Real Estate Brokers Association of the Philippines and our 54 chapters nationwide we represent — Maraming salamat po Mr. Chair.