Loan For Every Need
Originally posted on Philippine Free Press - December 2005 Issue.
Come high or low waters, the Pag-IBIG Fund, laterally, has a loan for every need. Since 2003, Pag-IBIG Fund does not only provide short term, multi-purpose, and housing loans, it has opened up a window for calamity loans. The move demonstrates the growing sensitivity of the Fund to the changing needs of its 6 million members.
There was a slight decline in the number of applications for provident claims this year. Aggregate provident claims granted in 2004 amounted to P3.36 billion benefiting 1 18,261 member-claimants nationwide. These represent a decrease of a 6 percent and 11 percent, respectively, from the P 3.58 billion claims disbursed to 132,410 claimants in 2003.
Of the total number of claimants, 42 percent or 50,199 members withdrew their total savings with the Fund due to membership maturity. Their claims amounted to P205 billion or 61 percent of the total amount granted this year. As expected, the number of claimants due to membership maturity continues to slowdown. This year’s claimants decreased by 15 percent from 59,070 in 2003. Claim applications due to the 20-year membership maturity shall continue until 2006, when the next batch of matured membership shall again peak.
Meanwhile, total regular provident claims stood at P1.31 billion, disbursed to 68,062 retiring members in 2004, showing a 3 percent increase in the amount released and a 7 percent decrease in the number of claimants from last year.
A total of P111.1 million in additional death benefits was released in 2004 to the legal heirs of 18,600 deceased members, showing a 3 percent increase from the P105.3 million additional death benefits granted in year 2003.
Short-Term Loans
There are two ongoing short-term loan programs-the Multi-purpose Loan and Calamity Loan Programs.
Under these programs, Pag-IBIG released a total of P17.131 billion to 1,353,025 members-borrowers in 2004. This is 40 percent higher than the loan availment for 2003, which totaled P12.23 billion granted to 1,087,230 borrowers, or 24 percent more than this year’s number of borrowers.
Multi-purpose Loans
The Multi-purpose Loan Program started to pick up this year after a slowdown in 2003. Total loan releases for the year aggregated to P12.95 balloon released to 1,112,730 member-borrowers, an 8 percent increase from the P1 1 28 billion loans extended to 1,034,460 members during the previous year. The increase can be attributed to the substantial decrease in the number of claimants for maturity, while a relatively big number of those who have claimed their total savings have remained active after withdrawal of their provident benefits and have already satisfied the pre-requisite 24 months contributions to avail anew of the MPL.
Calamity Loans
Calamity loans released in 2004 amounted to P4 17 billion, a staggering 341 percent increase from 2003’s P956.2 million in loan value. The program made possible for 240,295 Fund members to ease their financial distress due to natural calamities that ravaged their livelihood and/or residents.