GSIS, SSS, Pag-IBIG set aside billions for emergency loans

STATE-RUN pension funds yesterday said they would make billions of pesos available as emergency loans to the victims of storm Ondoy.

The Government Service Insurance System said members affected by the storm could take out emergency loans worth P20,000.

The loans were available to members working in government offices in areas that had been declared under a state of calamity, said Winston Garcia, GSIS president and general manager.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council has put these areas under a state of calamity: Metro Manila, Mt. Province, Ifugao, Benguet, Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, Pampanga, Bulacan, Tarlac, Bataan, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Catanduanes, Camarines Norte,and Camarines Sur.

Members may apply for the emergency loan, which bears an interest rate of 8 percent and is payable over three years, at any GSIS Wireless Automated Processing System kiosk. Applications are accepted between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The Social Security System said it would offer a maximum salary loan of P24,000 to members affected by the storm.

A spokesman for the fund, Joel Palacios, said the mechanics of the Early Renewal Program would be announced shortly, but members who had already taken out salary loans would still be able to borrow from the fund as long as they had paid off 50 percent of their earlier loan.

The Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund said it would give priority to calamity loan applications for affected members and set up service centers in Marikina and Cavite, areas that have been hard hit by floods.

Pag-IBIG chief executive Jaime Fabiaña said his office had received 1,115 calamity loan applications from members who could borrow up to 80 percent of their total savings, made up of their personal contributions, their employer counterpart savings and dividends earned.

Fabiaña said loans would take no longer than three days to process.

“We will not ask for other requirements, just the loan application,” he said.

To take out a calamity loan, the member must be a resident in one of the calamity areas and have paid at least 24 monthly contributions.

Land Bank of the Philippines announced that it was assessing the extent of the damage to its funded infrastructure and livelihood projects to help clients who were hurt by the typhoon to restructure their loans. –Lawrence Agcaoili, Manila Standard Today