Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Together with the other 14,617,850 paying members of Manila’s PagIBIG Home Development Mutual Fund (PagIBIG) across the globe, 72,150 paying members in the UAE were able to save and are therefore beneficiaries of the additional Php50.8 billion (Dhs3.61 billion/$983.11 million) resources in 2019.

The good news was from the “PagIBIG Fund reports record-breaking income, loan releases in 2019” published in the “Lingkod (Service) PagIBIG Fund News” emailed to Gulf Today on Thursday.

It was sourced from the “2019 PagIBIG Fund Chairman’s Report” held at the Philippine International Convention Center last February.

Human Settlements and Urban Development Secretary/PagIBIG Fund Chairperson Eduardo del Rosario stated: “We are happy to report that (PagIBIG) has again achieved an excellent year in 2019. We achieved record-highs in our key result areas while delivering responsive services to our members. By so doing, we continue to perform our mandate of effectively managing the Filipino workers’ savings, while providing affordable and accessible home financing programs for our members. This is in line with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s call for government to provide social benefits to more Filipinos.”

Del Rosario said the 14.69 million active PagIBIG members collectively saved Php50.38 billion in 2019, a 25 per cent increase from the members’ savings in 2018 at Php12.59 billion (Dhs901,890.9/$245,656.1).

Del Rosario attributed the exponential savings to the PagIBIG Modified PagIBIG 2 (MP2) Savings Collections which amounted to Php12.01 billion (Dhs860 million/$234.4 million) in 2019, a 169 per cent increase from the Php4.47 billion (Dhs320.4 million/$87.2 million) in 2018.

PagIBIG-Dubai and the Northern Emirates Member Service officer Lowella Recto said that among the 43,291 (28,851 in Abu Dhabi and the Western Region) members in 2019 are those who budget minimum of Dhs12,000.00 a year. Average age is 30. They are household service workers, housewives, professionals.

Reasons for their MP2 savings: children’s education, business capital, and lump sum savings plus dividends after five years when the members can withdraw the full amount. 

In 2011 and by subsequent amendments to the law, then President Benigno Aquino III required all overseas Filipino workers to enlist as members to the then 33-year-old PagIBIG, established in 1978 by the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., as the “answer to the need for a national savings program and affordable shelter financing for the Filipino worker.”

Majority of the over 600,000 Filipinos in the UAE are not members for the following reasons: zero knowledge, no time to enroll, no extra money.  Some see PagIBIG as a cause of corruption. Some simply do not care.