Pag-IBIG offers relief for members

MEMBERS OF the Pag-IBIG Fund who missed out on the monthly payments for their housing loans have until Sept. 30 to avail of the agency’s latest loan restructuring and penalty condonation program.

Pag-IBIG officer in charge Emma Linda B. Faria said the program would cover delinquent accounts with at least three months of unpaid amortization, provided that those who wish to restructure their loans have updated their real estate taxes.

Faria said Pag-IBIG, known officially as Home Mutual Development Fund, decided to embark on the program to help out members affected by the financial crisis.

The program is being implemented under the Socialized and Low-Cost Housing Loan Restructuring Act of 2008, which is meant to help borrowers avoid foreclosure.

This “is separate and distinct from other penalty condonation and loan restructuring programs” that Pag-IBIG had offered in the past, Faria said.

She added that the program offers full condonation of penalties, partial condonation of accumulated interest, and a new loan term covering up to 30 years, provided that the borrower is less than 70 years old.

“Aside from these, no processing fee and down payment are required,” the OIC said.

Faria clarified that the program applies to applicants whose original loans amounted to less than P2.5 million.

The program also covers the legal heirs of deceased borrowers, or installment buyers with unpaid loan balances.

Also covered are “successors-in-interest,” or those borrowers who have assumed the original mortgage of installment buyers, provided that the borrowers are less than 60 years of age.

Data from Pag-IBIG showed that in the the first half of 2010, the agency released a total of P22.7 billion under its shelter financing programs.

Some P21 billion in loans went to individual member-borrowers, accounting for 32,398 new housing units.

The rest of the amount lent out in the first half—P2 billion—was extended through various institutional loan programs. –Ronnel Domingo, Philippine Daily Inquirer