BY IRMA ISIP [ Malaya.com.ph ] February 2, 2012
THE Home Development Mutual (Pag-IBIG) Fund is poised to condone penalties on overdue loans but says it will earn in an ongoing condonation of penalties on membership as well as on housing loan defaults.
Darlene Marie Berberabe, chief executive officer of the Pag-IBIG Fund, said in an interview this is the first condonation program initiated on its own by the Fund. This has allowed it to carefully plan out the targets as a result of the waived penalties.
Berberabe said the condonation on membership would affect 1.5 million employers and would register an additional 5 million members.
Berberabe said while Pag-IBIG would waive P1.8 billion in penalties, it would generate P3 billion as a result of the new registrations.
"We estimate to collect P1.2 billion in principal and condone P1.8 billion in penalties," she said.
Berberabe said past condonation programs were mandated by law so they were not properly planned.
The application for condonation will last six months or from January to June this year
The condonation disqualifies employers who collected Pag-IBIG contributions from their employees but did not remit the contributions.
Berberabe said the program would allow employers unaware that Pag-IBIG membership is mandatory to register themselves as well as their employees.
Berberabe said the second condonation covers housing loans on properties not yet foreclosed but where members have defaulted on their payment.
The program would enable the members to restructure their loan and give them up to five years of payment.
Disqualified are those who have been previously disqualified or defaulted and availed of condonation but defaulted again.
Berberabe said blacklisted members can be removed from the list as long as they can present valid justification.
Berberabe said there are around 120,000 delinquent accounts, with a combined book value of P46 billion.
For employers, there are around 250,000 delinquent accounts.
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