Pag-IBIG executive defends housing agency

MANILA, Philippines – Jaime Fabiaña, chief executive officer of the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund), defended yesterday the agency and denied allegations that its officials have been working there too long and have lost the vision to serve.

Fabiaña deplored the statement issued by Delfin Lee, owner and president of Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp., in a report published by The STAR (“Real estate developer uncovers ‘unusually timed’ Pag-IBIG memo”) saying that officials at Pag-IBIG have overstayed and become lazy.

“Pag-IBIG continues to be a strong and viable institution because of its hardworking and dedicated men and women whose focus to serve the Fund’s more than eight million members nationwide remains unwavering,” Fabiaña said.

He said housing loan approval grew at an average of 42 percent for the last three years – P22 billion in 2007, P34 billion in 2008, and P46 billion in 2009.

At least 300 families are able to acquire homes daily through Pag-IBIG’s housing loan program, he said.

In times of calamity, Pag-IBIG provided an immediate lifeline to 800,000 calamity-stricken members through loans amounting to P14.7 billion.

On a daily basis, the Fund releases P185 million in short-term loans that helped finance the emergency needs of 10,454 members.

Fabiaña disputed Lee’s statement that the issuance of the “memo was unusually timed.”

The memo dated March 10, 2010 provides that a member applying for a housing loan should have complied with the 12-month residency requirement beginning July 1 of this year.

“It was not unusually timed,” Fabiaña said.

Lee said developers are ready to work with Pag-IBIG Fund to further develop better, more imaginative, and more creative financing schemes for housing loan applicants.

“We respect Pag-IBIG and the essential role they play in serving the people. So we hope to collaborate to have even better schemes for the public,” Lee said in a statement.

“For the benefit of the people who dream of having a home, surely, we, along with Pag-IBIG, can help aid the hardworking Pinoy, enabling them to make their dreams of having homes a reality. The focus should be on the underserved market. And if we help one another, more people can benefit,” he added.

Fabiaña said to properly disseminate the new requirement, the Fund has undertaken intensive consultations with developer groups including the Subdivision and Housing Developers Association (SHDA) and the Organization of Socialized Housing Developers of the Philippines (OSHDP), as well as with the fund coordinators who serve as liaisons of Pag-IBIG with employer-companies.

“We also made sure that the Fund include this policy in all its housing loan briefings both here and abroad. It was thoroughly discussed in a lot of meetings,” Fabiaña pointed out.

He said the Pag-IBIG Board headed by former vice president and HUDCC chairman Noli de Castro had approved the new rules.

However, in a recent memo, the senior management of the Fund heeded the request of developers and members to defer its implementation and allowed the payment of 24 monthly contributions until Sept. 30, provided housing loan applications are submitted not later than Dec. 29, 2010.

Fabiaña said the 12-month residency requirement was established under HDMF Circular No. 55 to build up more funds for re-lending. In March 2000, the residency requirement was two years.

In 2001, Pag-IBIG lifted the two-year residency requirement allowing members to pay in lump sum the 24 monthly membership contributions to avail of a housing loan because there were only a few borrowers then. At that time, total housing loan approval was only P3.5 billion.

Fabiaña also observed that instant membership has been prone to abuse, citing monitoring reports which indicated that abuses have been committed, particularly in the Pampanga area including Lee’s Xevera projects, where almost 400 approved accounts were confirmed to be doubtful because the borrowers denied they availed of the housing loans.

He said Lee himself confirmed the existence of these problematic approved accounts.

In a letter to Pag-IBIG, Lee said that “based on our internal monitoring, there are buyers who have not been paying since take-out (loan approval). We are closely monitoring some 1,000 accounts which we suspect are of questionable buyers. We have since cancelled 400 of these accounts…”

Fabiaña also took exception to Lee’s statement that HDMF officials are “lazy, they put the money in treasury bills and avoid innovative and challenging work that can fulfill the mission to provide low-cost housing to Filipinos.”

Pag-IBIG has long surpassed its mandate to provide 70 percent of its funds for housing. “In 2009, 78 percent of the P256-billion total assets of the Fund are housing-related. For the first five months of the year, this has already reached 80 percent representing P204 billion out of the P271 billion total assets.

“But we cannot put all our funds in housing as we must be able to pay our members’ provident claims on time. Plus we must always be liquid,” said Emma Linda Faria, deputy chief executive officer for support services.

On Lee’s estimate that 70 percent of low-cost housing clients of real estate developers would be affected by the policy, Fabiaña said that out of the eight million members of Pag-IBIG, only around 800,000 members have housing loans.

There are more than seven million remaining members who have made 24-monthly membership contributions who have not yet availed of a housing loan. “If sales agents are not lazy, they can easily tap this potential.”

Fabiaña underscored that the Fund is what it is today – one of the top government corporations and the leading financier of the government’s housing program – because of the singular dedication and hard work of its 5,000-strong work force.

As a result, Pag-IBIG has been recognized locally and internationally for its contribution in housing. To cite a few: a Triple A minus rating from PhilRatings in 2005 for credit-worthiness, UN-Habitat Scroll of Honor in 2006 for providing affordable home financing, making the Fund the first government agency to receive such commendation; Congressional Citation in 2008 for its exemplary contribution to the government’s battle against homelessness and poverty; and Civil Service Commission PASADA Awardee since 2007 for exhibiting the value of customer care and meeting the expectation of the transacting public for prompt, courteous, and responsive service.

Fabiaña assured the members that the Fund would continuously refine its housing program to ensure that every Filipino worker could fulfill the dream to have his or her own home. –Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star)