AR 3134 – Housing, BLISS: Quiz Assignment

Viacrucis, Josef Quito - 20103030

Group members:
Alviola, Isabel
Jandug, Christen
Misa, Georgia
Salino, Gayle

BLISS: Bringing the Community to the People

Urban analysts state that the Philippines is considered to be one of the fastest
urbanizing countries in East Asia and this could bring many opportunities for more
families to prosper and for poverty to be reduced (Baker, 2017). As urbanization grows
more rapid, the need for more housing arises. Even with this need, housing problems
still exist, and these include unaffordability, inadequate utility systems, insufficient
protection from natural disasters, substandard construction quality, and poor quality of
communities (Monsod, 2014). These problems persist even today and is the cause for
poor living conditions for people living in urban communities.

During the 1970’s, the problem of housing was especially rampant since people
from rural areas sought for opportunities in cities causing congestion and a trend in
urban slums. With this, rural areas continued to lose more people that mainly
contributed to the agriculture industry. A solution implemented at that time was the
BLISS Program, which stands for Bagong Lipunan Sites and Services. This program
was enacted by former Philippine president and dictator, Ferdinand E. Marcos, during
1979 as a solution to the need of housing to support the growing population in urban
areas. In June of 1978, Marcos also created the Ministry of Human Settlements which
became BLISS’ lead agency.

The BLISS program’s main purpose is to help shelter Filipinos, provide them a
more livable and healthier environment, and put them in an active and hospitable
community. The program seeks to implement housing developments on both rural and
urban areas. These developments are to house model communities of 50
families/households in every municipality of the country. The quality of these
communities are upheld by minimum requirements and standards to maintain a
healthy and better community lifestyle. One of these requirements is locating BLISS
sites in areas with a lot of economic activity that allows for more job opportunities. This
allows households to have higher incomes and in turn let them avail for more basic
necessities or services like electricity, food, water, healthcare, etc. With this, residents
in these households are able to live ideal lifestyles and become functioning citizens in
the society.

The BLISS program consists of five components that contribute to the system
that makes the program functional. These components that enables BLISS
communities to prosper are: Organizational Development, Site Development, Service
Delivery, Shelter Provision, and Livelihood Development. Organizational Development
refers to making people not only beneficiaries of the program but also partners in
development. This enables community-level planning processes between community
members. Site Development deals with planning and designing of a BLISS site and
implementing services and facilities such as roads, utility facilities, schools, clinics, etc.
Service Delivery pertains to the training of BLISS beneficiaries to negotiate with
government agencies in order for their community to receive basic social services.
Shelter Provision is concerned with the architectural design of housing units to ensure
its serviceability to residing families. While Livelihood Development gives BLISS
beneficiaries income opportunities through small-scale livelihood projects to give them
the ability to support their selves financially.

People who could benefit from this program had to be selected through a
process done locally and headed by the local mayor. As this program was made for
the Filipino people, there were certain criteria that made an individual viable for this
program. Beneficiaries of the BLISS program needed to have the following
characteristics:

• Be a Filipino citizen
• Be a resident of a municipality where BLISS site is located for at least 3
consecutive years
• Have a gross family income not exceeding 500 PHP (7,172 PHP in today’s
rate)
• Be a member of a nuclear family of at least four but not exceeding six
members
• Be of good moral character
 • Be head of the family
• Be 45 years old and below

These are some of the requirements that individuals need to benefit from the
program. Other requirements state that 30% of every BLISS site beneficiary group
should come from the government sector. They would also need to have skills related
to livelihood propagation or organizational development in order to help manage and
develop a BLISS community.

BLISS housing unit projects at first used indigenous construction materials. The
design of these also utilized local architectural motifs and features. These are
emphasized to reflect the Filipino identity on to housing developments under the
BLISS program. Despite their abundance as natural materials, the use of these were
found to be insufficient. New building materials and designs were implemented on
“flexi-homes” during 1982. These featured a two-story building envelope and were
prefabricated buildings that could be built in stages. More durable materials like
reinforced concrete were utilized in response to the country’s climate and the designs
were inspired from traditional Filipino shelter designs.
References

Yeung, Y. M. (1983). A place to live: More effective low-cost housing in Asia.

International Development Research Centre.

Baker, J. (n.d.). Unlocking the Philippines' urbanization potential. World Bank Blogs.
Retrieved February 14, 2022, from
https://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/unlocking-the-philippines-urbanization-
potential

Monsod, T. (2011, February 2). Is government really solving the housing problem?,
by Toby C. Monsod. UP School of Economics Discussion Papers. Retrieved
February 14, 2022, from https://ideas.repec.org/p/phs/dpaper/201104.html