Saturday, March 7, 2009 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE Home Mutual Development Fund (HMDF) or Pag-Ibig Fund has set aside a total of P50 billion this year for housing development nationwide.
This was according to lawyer Romero Quimbo, chief executive officer of the Pag-Ibig Fund, in Friday's Mindanao Housing Forum held at the Grand Men Seng Hotel in Davao City.
"Last year, Pag-Ibig has a budget of P33 billion for the housing program, but this year, P50 billion has been already set aside for housing development, or an increase of 53 percent," Quimbo said, adding that 50 percent of the P50 billion goes to the National Capital Region (NCR), and the rest of the budget will be divided to the different regions in the country.
The increase in the housing program budget, Quimbo said, will only mean that developers in the country, who used to be partners of the Pag-Ibig Fund, will have the opportunity to develop more properties nationwide.
He said one of the thrusts of Pag-Ibig, aside from increasing its budget for housing program, is to help its partner developers to locate and find potential markets.
"We want to deal with developers who are growing successfully and we want to develop a long and lasting relationship with them," Quimbo said.
He said Pag-Ibig Fund is implementing programs that are sustainable for the benefit of both the agency and its partner developers.
"The rules that we put in place are not implemented to make our lives difficult, but for our relationship to be sustainable," he said.
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