Pag-IBIG Prepares P1.5M for Calamity Loans

The Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) Fund in the Visayas and Mindanao on Thursday emphasized they are ready to serve cash loans to their members in areas mostly hit and affected by typhoon Ruby.

Pag-IBIG Vice President Victoria B dela Peña, member services branch operations for Visayas and Mindanao said they already prepared a budget of P1.5 million for calamity loans, aside from the P1.5 million for relief goods they are going to distribute to Samar, Leyte and northern Cebu areas.

“Right at this moment in time we don’t have received yet any calamity loan applications, but may be this coming week we are sure applicants will be flooding to the Pag-IBIG offices in the north and south districts”, Dela Peña said.

Dela Peña said Pag-IBIG has 13 branches with five housing business centers in the Visayas and Mindanao, “so our members who want to avail loans and other services can go directly to our nearest office in the area where they are residing”, she said.

Based on media reports, thousand of individuals were reportedly affected by the typhoon who are now staying at the evacuation centers in Samar, Leyte and northern Cebu because their houses were destroyed by the strong wind.

Most of the local government units (LGUs) in the aforementioned areas were utilizing their covered courts or sports complex buildings as temporary evacuation centers for those families who have no more areas to lean on.

“On the aspect of providing housing materials, the Pag-IBIG office is exempted on this responsibility because this is already under the LGUs’ task to provide such things to the calamity victims,” Dela Peña said.

While it is true that PAG-IBIG Fund is a housing agency of the government but everybody knows that its housing investments solely come from its members’ monthly contributions, according to Dela Peña.

“So you are our boss and we can not afford to expense your money without any return investment because you are even paying every service we give to you”, Dela Peña added.

This is Dela Peña’s response to some queries on whether the Pag-IBIG Fund can give freely housing materials to all its typhoon affected members in the various parts of the Visayas.

“Right now the only service we could provide to our members in those areas lambasted by Ruby is the acceptance of their calamity loan applications,” Dela Peña said.