Posted on 08:37 PM, July 13, 2010 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
A REQUIREMENT that new members of the Home Development Mutual Fund become members of the fund for a year before they can apply for loans will not be implemented this month after all.
But Jaime A. Fabiana, chief executive of the fund, commonly known as the Pag-IBIG Fund, stressed the rule will still be implemented to make sure that loans go to the right beneficiaries.
He told a briefing yesterday a memorandum dated July 2 has pushed back the date of the implementation of the new rule to September 30 instead of July 1, due to requests by housing developers to give newly-registered members enough time to apply for housing loans under the old rules.
But once the new rule takes effect, Pag-IBIG will require new members to have a residency of at least a year in addition to 24 months’ worth of contributions, before they can apply for housing loans.
“We saw the need to impose this rule as allowing otherwise would be dangerous to the viability of the fund,” Mr. Fabiana said.
He said that instant membership has been prone to abuse, citing reports in Pampanga where 387 approved loan applications for projects of a certain real estate firm were confirmed as doubtful after the borrowers said they did not avail of these loans.
Mr. Fabiana said there were reports that members were asked to sign housing loan applications without them knowing they were signing Pag-IBIG loan applications.
“We would be conducting an investigation to find if we can file cases against certain individuals,” he said.
“Housing is a planned activity. You have to plan for it because that is your biggest investment,” he added.
Delfin S. Lee, owner and president of Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings, was reported to have said the new rule on eligibility for first-time loans would prevent thousands of individuals from gaining immediate access to low-cost housing.
But Mr. Fabiana said that of the Pag-IBIG’s 8 million members, only 10% or 800,000 have existing loans with the Fund.
“We have 7.2 million members qualified to apply for loans so it should not be hard to find a market for low-cost housing,” he said.
Housing loans extended by the Pag-IBIG rose by around 7% in the first quarter of the year to P10.26 billion, from P9.6 billion in the same period last year. -- Louella D. Desiderio
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