Pag-IBIG defers contribution rate hike

After consulting with labor and employer groups, the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) has decided to postpone increasing its members’ monthly contributions in January out of consideration of the plight of both workers and business owners during the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

In a statement on Friday, Human Settlements Secretary Eduardo del Rosario announced the approval of the recommendation of the Pag-IBIG Fund management to move the implementation of the hike in the members’ monthly contributions from P100 to P150 to January 2022. The deferment also applies to the share of their employers.

“After consulting with our stakeholders, we will no longer push through with the increase [in] members’ monthly contributions next year,” said del Rosario, also chairman of the 11-member Pag-IBIG Board of Trustees.

“We know that many of our members and employers faced financial challenges in the last few months because of the effects brought about by the pandemic [on] the economy,” he added.

“This [deferment] is in line with the efforts of the administration of President [Rodrigo] Duterte to alleviate the financial burden of our fellow Filipinos and help businesses recover.”

This comes after Pag-IBIG officials approved in 2019 the increase in its members’ monthly contributions that remained unchanged since the 1980s. According to Pag-IBIG Fund Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Acmad Rizaldy Moti, it was projected at the time that the amount of loans disbursed would eventually outpace collections from both loan payments and members’ contributions each year.

“So we proposed to increase the monthly savings by P50 to have enough funds to answer the growing demand [for] and maintain the low rates of our loans. However, with the pandemic reaching our country, the circumstances have changed,” Moti said.

“Rest assured, our financial position remains strong and that has allowed us to defer the increase in our monthly contributions by a year. What we are focused on right now is providing our members and businesses the assistance they need to cope with the effects of the pandemic,” he added.

Moti also said that while the pandemic dampened demand for home loans early this year, their availment had been rising steadily since quarantine restrictions were eased.

“While demand has not been what it was in previous years, we are already noticing the increasing number of availment, signaling that our economy has started to recover. So far, we have released P44.16 billion in home loans this year, allowing 43,733 members to have their own homes,” the Pag-IBIG CEO said.

“For October alone, we released P7.7 billion in home loans. This equals our pre-pandemic monthly takeout target for October, and we take this as a hopeful sign that we are getting back on track,” he added.

“We assure our members that we will continue serving them especially during these difficult times. While the pandemic could have been used as an excuse not to serve, we at Pag-IBIG Fund used it as a reason to serve our members better.”

Source: ManilaTimes

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