THE Home Development Fund (HDMF) popularly known as Pag-IBIG Fund will launch its penalty condonation programs both for the employers and the Fund members starting January next year.
The Fund›s vice president for Southern Mindanao Operations Group Jose W. Banzon, Jr. said the programs include those for delinquent housing loan borrowers and for employers who failed to remit the contributions of their members.
He said the two programs will commence on January 2012 as HDMF›s Board of Trustees approved the double programs that will run for six months.
For the employers, Banzon said they already had sent letters to companies which he said they based it on the data from the Department of Labor and Employment.
The DOLE conducts regular inspection to see to it that companies implement government rules and regulations including employees’ benefits like Pag-IBIG Fund contributions.
Penalty for non-remittance of member›s contribution is at 3 percent monthly. «Annualized penalty becomes big to about 36 percent,» he said.
He said they will offer plan of payment to companies of either 24 months or 60 months depending on the number of employees.
He said this is an opportunity for the employers to settle non-remittance of contributions because after June 30, 2012, the Fund will be forced to take legal action.
The other program is the penalty condonation for housing loan borrowers. This is applicable to accounts with four months in arrears and beyond, he said.
Although he did not give the exact figure of delinquent borrowers he placed accounts in default at 15 percent.
The Southern Mindanao Group has a total loan borrowers for 2011 of about 3,141 with total amount at P1.6 billion.
In a statement Vice President Jejomar Binay who is also chair of the Board of Pag-IBIG Fund said the penalty condonation for housing loan borrowers is a way of providing our delinquent borrowers an opportunity to make good on their housing loan obligations even as he that our members realize that when they borrow money from the Fund, and from any other lending institutions, they have obligations to fulfill.
“I strongly encourage them to avail themselves of this final opportunity that we are offering,” the Vice President said. He said Pag-IBIG’s mandate is to assist Filipino workers realize their dream of having their own homes.
Pag-IBIG’s housing loan programs provide for the most convenient terms and conditions with interest as low as 6% per annum and payment terms as long as 30 years.
Meanwhile, Pag-IBIG Chief Executive Officer Atty. Darlene Marie B. Berberabe said housing borrowers should understand that the loan extended to them was pooled from the hard earned savings of other members.
“This makes it all the more imperative for us to recover the money we lent to them. If a borrower defaults in his payment, Pag-IBIG will institute appropriate proceedings. So we would like to give our borrowers this last chance to pay their obligations with Pag-IBIG Fund,” Berberabe said. [PRIX D. BANZON/PR]
