Vice President Noli de Castro has expressed support for a congressional move to extend by another three years the rent control law, which expired last month.

De Castro, also chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, said the proposed extension will protect low and middle income earners from sudden and unreasonable increases in housing rent.

“Specifically, I endorse Senate Bill 2884 filed by Senator Miguel Zubiri which extends the rent control law for three years effective Jan. 1, 2009 up to Dec. 31, 2011,” De Castro said.

According to De Castro, the bill adopts the same provisions of the three-year-old law, which limits rental increase at 10 percent annually. This covers rentals of up to P10,000 in Metro Manila and other highly urbanized areas and P5,000 in the provinces.

“I understand that Speaker [Prospero] Nograles himself will sponsor the version of this bill at the House of Representatives,” De Castro said.

De Castro pointed out that the extension of rent control will not necessarily discourage the production of housing rental units.

“This is consistent with my view on the role of government as protector of the interests of the vulnerable sectors. We in government should take this role seriously, particularly in the coming months and years when the full impact of the global crisis is expected to hit our country,” De Castro said.

The law’s extension was also supported by Lucille Ortiz, secretary general of the Housing and Urban Development Council, who urged the House and the Senate to approve pending proposals to replace the expired law.

She said the approval of the proposed law would be very important for low income families and students renting residential units or living in boarding houses.

But Parañaque City Rep. Eduardo Zialcita said market forces should be left to dictate the housing rent.

Zialcita, vice chairman of the House committee on housing and urban development, said that the inclination of most members of the committee is to just allow prevailing market forces to determine the increases in rent on residential units.

“No more extensions,” said Zialcita, who sponsored the bill extending the rent control law in the previous Congress. ‘‘Two extensions were enough.”

Zialcita said the non-extension of the law would instead encourage the public to purchase houses for rent or enter into a housing loan with Pag-IBIG, which charges low interest rates.

The expired law covered residential units with total monthly rent not exceeding P10,000 for each unit in Metro Manila and other highly urbanized cities, and not exceeding P5,000 in all other areas.

Based on a census of population and housing, there were 1.54 million rental units in the country, of which 687,048 are in Manila.

The expired law allowed the lessor to require from the lessee an advance payment equivalent to a month’s rent, and a deposit of no more than two months. Roy Pelovello