₱1.9 Billion for 382 Units and a Rooftop Pool: Poverty Solved, Next Problem Please

Featuring special guest stars Bongbong Marcos and Isko Moreno in the feel-good blockbuster “Unity Tayo, Picture Muna”

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — December 2, 2025

1. The Grand Illusion: A Photo-Op for Strange Bedfellows

Yesterday, in the heart of Sta. Cruz, Manila, the nation witnessed a masterclass in political alchemy. There they stood — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and former Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso — grinning, clapping, and cutting ribbons as though they hadn’t spent the entire 2022 campaign telling voters the other was a national catastrophe.

Behold the dance of convenience:

Bongbong borrows a rare, photogenic success to mask the black hole that is his national housing program.

Isko gets presidential anointing for his legacy towers and a reminder to the country that he is still very much in the game.

Unity! Cooperation! Harmony!

All it took was one 20-storey building and a few dozen cameras. Yesterday’s mortal enemies, today’s bromance — brought to you by the miracle of shared stage lighting.

**Swim at your own risk: pool depth 4 ft, debt depth 40 years.**

2. The Housing Hustle: Ambition vs. Actual Bricks

	FERDINAND MARCOS JR. National 4PH Program	ISKO MORENO DOMAGOSO Manila “-minium” Empire
Original Promise	1 million units PER YEAR (6M by 2028)	“In-city housing for the poor” – no hard number
2025 Reality	< ⅓ of even the scaled-back target	Actually built & occupied towers
Signature Talent	PowerPoint dreams & groundbreaking ceremonies	Builds the damn thing, then invites the President
Nickname	The Edifice Complex of Malacañang	King of the Potemkin Condos

Yes, Isko’s towers are real. You can touch them. People sleep in them. But let’s not faint from excitement: a few hundred units here, a few hundred there — exquisite, Instagrammable drops in Manila’s ocean of misery.

3. The Devil in the Details

“Affordable” monthly amortization

₱2,000 – minimum-wage earners
₱3,000 – everyone else up to SG-18

Quick math for the palace economists:

NCR daily minimum wage (2025): ₱610
Take-home pay after deductions: ~₱12,500–₱13,000/month
Typical family expenses (food, transport, school, electricity): ₱18,000–₱25,000

So ₱2,000–₱3,000 is “affordable” the same way a private yacht is affordable if you just stop eating for thirty years.

Amenities highlight

Rooftop swimming pool

Because nothing says “we have finally ended poverty” like a chlorinated status symbol twenty floors above families who can’t afford rice.

My public challenge

Manila City Hall: publish the complete list of the 382 San Lazaro beneficiaries by December 15, 2025. Names, former addresses, monthly income, and any blood relation (if any) to barangay officials or city councilors.

No redactions. No excuses. Let the sunshine in.

4. The Unseen Victims: The Cleansing Continues

For every family handed shiny new keys on national television, how many families received demolition notices in the dark?

These towers don’t rise on empty air. They rise because estero communities, sidewalk homes, and decades-old barangays were erased to make room for “beautification.”

I want an independent, third-party audit of every demolition order issued within two kilometers of every “-minium” site since 2019.

Because urban renewal that requires human erasure is just gentrification wearing a barong.

5. A Call to Arms: No More Fairy Tales

Enough with the ribbon-cutting circus.

By Christmas Day 2025, I demand the following be posted online, searchable, and updated quarterly:

Full beneficiary registry for every in-city housing (name, former address, selection score)
Real-time occupancy and vacancy report for every tower
Independent audit of the maintenance and sinking fund (so we know who pays when the elevator dies in 2032)
Complete record of all relocation and demolition orders linked to these projects

To President Marcos and former Mayor Domagoso:

Prove this wasn’t just the most expensive photo backdrop of your careers.

Prove those 382 families are still thriving in 2030, still paying ₱2,000 without selling organs, and that no one was thrown into the street to make your unity hug possible.

Until then, spare us the sermons about dignity.

The poor don’t need another swimming pool.

They need politicians who build more than stages.

Yours in eternal, righteous fury,

–Barok