Pag-IBIG fund defers over P15B worth of loan payment amid ECQ

The Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund has allowed the deferment of more than P15 billion worth of loan payments as relief for its members affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

In a statement, Pag-IBIG Fund CEO Acmad Rizaldy Moti said that the agency's deferment of over P15 billion loan payments cover 713,225 housing loan borrowers and over four million cash loan borrowers.

"Pag-IBIG Fund has always put sustainability over profitability.  And for us, sustainability starts with taking care of our members given that the Pag-IBIG Fund is owned by its members. Pag-IBIG is always ready to help whatever the situation, and this pandemic is no exception," Moti said.

"Our members' welfare is of primary importance to us, which is why we initiated in March a moratorium program, which is a separate program from the grace period prescribed under the law," he said.

The Pag-IBIG Fund has granted a grace period on loan payments of all its borrowers during the ECQ, in compliance with Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

The law's Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) provides borrowers of all lenders in the country, which include the Pag-IBIG Fund, a 30-day extension for loan payments which can be further extended until the end of the ECQ period.

"Following the Bayanihan Law and the directive of President Duterte to alleviate the burden of Filipinos during this pandemic, we are happy to announce that we have deferred loan payments of our 4.77 million borrowers for the duration of the quarantine.  All of them are automatically covered by the grace  period so they don't have to apply for this anymore," Housing Secretary Eduardo del Rosario, who heads both the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and the 11-member Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees, said.

Under the Pag-IBIG Fund's moratorium program, qualified borrowers are given a longer loan payment reprieve of three months, with all penalties and interests waived. 

Members eligible to apply are borrowers of Pag-IBIG Housing Loan, Multi-Purpose Loan (MPL), or Calamity Loan, whose incomes have been impaired by the ECQ or by the loss of jobs or closure of businesses as a result of the declarations of state of calamity or state of public health emergency in their area.

"Our moratorium program provides longer payment relief to members who have lost their jobs or business during the quarantine. But since this is optional, members have to apply for it online. Whichever the case may be, either the grace period or our moratorium program, our borrowers now have one less thing to worry about," Moti said. -MDM, GMA News