The Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) has announced it is offering a loan restructuring program to allow housing loan borrowers to defer their payments until March 2021 and to lower their monthly payments.
In a statement, Human Settlements Secretary Eduardo del Rosario said the agency was ready to grant home loan borrowers with lower monthly payments up to six months of payment relief, and waived penalties on unpaid monthly amortizations under its Special Housing Loan Restructuring Program (SHLRP) to help them better cope with the economic challenges brought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
“We understand the need of our members, especially during these trying times. That is why we are offering this program to help ease their financial burden and provide them enough time to recover,” said del Rosario, also the chairman of the Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees.
“We want to let them know that the special loan restructuring program is available to our housing loan borrowers who have unpaid monthly amortizations of up to 12 months as of August 2020. We are doing this in support of the government’s efforts, led by President [Rodrigo] Duterte, in helping Filipinos who are going through financial difficulties caused by Covid-19,” he added.
“If they apply now, they get the chance to resume payment of their restructured loans by as late as March 2021. This gives them at least four months of payment relief. Since we started offering the program in September, we have already received nearly 45,000 applications, but I would like to encourage more borrowers to avail [of these]. We will be receiving applications until December 15.”
Meanwhile, Pag-IBIG Fund Chief Executive Officer Acmad Rizaldy Moti said borrowers may apply for the loan restructuring program online, as his agency continued to move transactions to its Virtual Pag-IBIG facility to promote improved safety and convenience for members.
“We will be accepting applications for our Special Housing Loan Restructuring Program via Virtual Pag-IBIG to make it easier and safer for our borrowers. They can apply for the program from the safety of their homes by clicking
www.pagibigfundservices.com/virtualpagibig/HLR/Restructuring.aspx. They don’t have to go to our branches anymore,” Moti said.
“And since the loan restructuring program is meant to help borrowers amid the pandemic, I’d like to remind borrowers that we will not be asking for down payment nor will we charge a processing fee for applications,” he added.
“The SHLRP is our way of giving back to our borrowers who always pay their monthly dues with [the] Pag-IBIG Fund, but have fallen behind over the past months due to the pandemic. We want to assure them that in these times of crisis, they can lean on Pag-IBIG.
This is what Lingkod Pag-IBIG is all about.”