Pag-IBIG Fund has deferred for a year the increase in contribution rate of members and the counterpart of employers to ease their financial burden amid the pandemic.
This developed as the Fund announced monthly loan releases are now back to pre-pandemic levels and officials take this as a hopeful sign that it is getting back on track.
At the 1st Virtual Stakeholders Accomplishment report over the weekend, Pag-IBIG Fund said it is postponing the P50-hike in contribution rate from P100 to P150 originally scheduled in January 2021 to January 2022. The deferment also applies to the share of their employers.
In 2019, agency officials approved the increase of its members’ monthly contributions, which had remained unchanged since the 1980s.
In the same event, Pag-IBIG Fund chief executive officer Acmad Rizaldy Moti said the Fund’s strong financial position has allowed it to defer the increase in monthly contributions by a year.
Moti said while the pandemic dampened demand for home loans early in the year, availment has been rising steadily since quarantine restrictions were eased.
“While demand has not been what it was in previous years, we are already noticing the increasing number of availment, signaling that our economy has started to recover. So far, we have released P44.16 billion in home loans this year, allowing 43,733 members to have their own homes. For this October alone, we released P7.7B in home loans. This equals our pre-pandemic monthly takeout target for October and we take this as a hopeful sign that we are getting back on track.
