Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Loan borrowers from the Philippines’s PagIBIG Fund (Home Mutual Development Fund) can heave a sigh of relief as officials of the government-owned-and-controlled corporation (GOCC) have announced a three-month or 90-day deferment on their payments.

Benefitting specifically and which may include any of the 72,150 paying PagIBIG Fund members in the UAE are those whose loans are due on March 16 to June 15, 2020.

A statement to Gulf Today on Wednesday evening reads: “As we continue to abide by the enhanced community quarantine, we have made the application for the three-month moratorium on loan payments available online via the Virtual PagIBIG. Deadline of application for the moratorium is on June 15.”

Metro Manila-based newspapers, quoting PagIBIG Fund chairman/Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development Secretary Eduardo del Rosario as saying that the Novel Coronavirus-related decision would apply to all the 4.77 million borrowers around the world who had availed of housing loan, multi-purpose loan, and calamity loan.

Latest records, from the GOCC set up in 1978 to assist Filipinos purchase and own homes as well as save on the side, have revealed of four million cash borrowers and 713,225 housing loan borrowers.

Del Rosario and PagIBIG Fund President/chief executive officer Acmad Rizaldy Moti said the board of trustees also decided to waive “all penalties and interests.”

They believe members-borrowers “whose income have been impaired as a result of the community quarantine, temporary suspension of work, or closure of business” should prioritize their families’ basic needs and welfare.

The Virtual PagIBIG is accessible through www.pagibigfundservices.com/virtualpagibig/loan moratorium.

Other contact details are contactus@pagibigfund.gov.ph and www.pagibigfund.gov.ph.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) recently distanced itself from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) which became controversial after recent weekend news announced that all overseas Filipino workers, estimated at over 12 million around the world, must contribute three percent of their monthly salary to this agency in order to re-energize the ailing universal healthcare system of the Southeast Asian country.

POEA is among the attached government agencies to Manila’s Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE). It is responsible for the documentation of all OFWs as it oversees the legitimacy of all recruitment and manpower agencies contracting the sector for their overseas deployment or work.