The Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund), the state-run corporation that provides affordable housing loans, has been servicing its members virtually since December 2019.
It was launched as part of the agency’s 39th Anniversary celebrations. With this, members no longer need to visit a Pag-IBIG Fund office to apply for a loan or for any other transaction. Members just need to create a Virtual Pag-IBIG account via the Virtual Pag-IBIG portal to access the government agency’s services online in a matter of clicks while staying at home. With the uncertainties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, Pag-IBIG Fund has also offered programs for relief on loans. This include the mandatory grace period of 30 days on loan payments brought about by the Bayanihan Law and the three-month moratorium on all loans, which the agency initiated during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
It also expanded its home construction fund from P2 billion to P10 billion to support the country’s housing market and to help revive the economy. To further support home loan borrowers who missed their obligations, the agency intends to help them save their properties from foreclosure through four separate programs – Loan Restructuring, Penalty Condonation, Plan of Payment, and Loan Revaluation.
At the helm of Pag-IBIG Fund is Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti, the Chief Executive Officer, who is the brain behind Virtual Pag-ibig.
Moti joined Pag-IBIG Fund as Senior Vice President for the Information Technology Services Sector in 2008. He was then tasked to lead the agency’s Home Lending Operations Cluster in 2011. In March 2017, he was assigned as officer-in-charge of the agency until he was eventually appointed as Pag-IBIG Fund’s CEO by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in May 2017.
BusinessMirror interviewed Moti on how the agency balances sustainability and profitability amid the new normal. Here are excerpts of the interview:
BM: How did the Pag-IBIG Fund do last year in the face of the pandemic?
Moti: The Pag-IBIG Fund performed quite well last year, considering the circumstances. In terms of our housing loans, we initially experienced a slowdown when the ECQ was implemented in March of 2020, but we quickly recovered as early as June when restrictions started to ease. From September to December, our numbers reached near “pre-pandemic levels” and from September to November, our home loan releases reached more than P6 billion to P7 billion per month. By December, home loan releases reached P12.1 billion – the highest amount ever released in a single month – pandemic notwithstanding.
Remittance of Pag-IBIG savings remained steady and even as the health crisis triggered an economic slowdown, members even chose to save more in our MP2 program. Despite the pandemic, our members collectively saved P13.3 billion in MP2 the entire year, which is the biggest annual amount we have collected so far. At the end of the year, Pag-IBIG Fund’s net income stood at P31.69 billion, marking the fourth consecutive year that our net income surpassed the P30 billion-mark.
BM: Did many members avail of your loan products?
Moti: In 2020, we were able to help 1,735,921 borrowers during the pandemic by disbursing short-term loans (Multi-Purpose loans and Calamity loans) amounting to P35.6 billion. We also helped 63,750 members acquire a home of their own with the release of P63.75 billion in home loans last year.
BM: Were there any delays in the remittance of these loan payments? Did you offer any amnesty program?
Moti: We acted fast to help our borrowers through these challenging times. In mid-March 2020, just a day after the ECQ was implemented in Metro Manila and other areas, we offered our borrowers a three-month moratorium on their loan payments, so they will not have to worry about it until after June 2020. Under our optional moratorium program, we helped more than 320,000 borrowers.
We also granted an automatic grace period on the loan payments – housing and short-term loans – in compliance with the “Bayanihan I” law. This grace period benefitted over 4.77 million borrowers. In the second half of 2020, we implemented the 60-day grace period following the signing of the Bayanihan II law which helped 3.69 million Pag-IBIG Housing Loan and Short-Term Loan borrowers.
Before the year ended, we offered a Special Housing Loan Restructuring Program to provide further financial relief to our members which in turn aided 85,440 Pag-IBIG Housing Loan borrowers to lower their monthly payments. And in the coming months until mid-year 2022 (July 2021 to June 2022), we are targeting to disburse P74.79 billion to help 72,524 borrowers acquire a home of their own and release P47.25 billion in cash loans to aid 2,261,380 members.
BM: What made you decide to develop the Virtual Pag-IBIG platform?
Moti: We have long been dreaming of opening a branch that never closes, a branch that is not limited by office hours so that we can continue providing services to our members at any time. With Virtual Pag-IBIG, we have made it easier for our members to get a Pag-IBIG Fund Membership ID (MID) number, enroll for an MP2 Savings account, apply for, and monitor the status of their Housing Loan, Multi-Purpose Loan (MPL) and Calamity Loan application, and view their records. The Virtual Pag-IBIG also has an online payment facility which allows members to pay for their loans and remit their monthly savings through PayMaya or with their credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, or JCB).
BM: How has it been received by your members and their employers?
Moti: When the ECQ that was implemented in Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon necessitated the closure of our branches in these areas from March to May 2020, we were still able to deliver services because of the Virtual Pag-IBIG. We even upgraded the platform less than three months after its launch to accept online applications for Multi-Purpose Loan (MPL) and Calamity Loan.
With the Virtual Pag-IBIG and interventions we set in place, we were able to assist more than 1.22 million members to apply for cash loans from March 17 up to the end of 2020. Total loans released amounted to P25.15 billion, which helped our members cope with the financial difficulties brought about by the pandemic. And, today, users of the Virtual Pag-IBIG continue to grow. From January 2021 to April 4, 2021, alone, it was visited by 4,988,028 users in 179 countries all over the world. Right now, we have about 638,187 active Virtual Pag-IBIG Accounts and many are creating accounts every day.
BM: Do you have any plans of adding more services to Virtual Pag-IBIG?
Yes. As a matter of fact, we do. We have piloted a separate Virtual Pag-IBIG for employers and we are already in the process of creating a Virtual Pag-IBIG for developers. With these, employers will be able to monitor the records of their employees and approve their employees’ loan applications, among others. For developers, the Virtual Pag-IBIG will help digitize the processing of folders and they can immediately assess homebuyers which will make transactions faster.
BM:How many employees do you have? With Virtual Pag-IBIG in place, what is your working arrangement now?
Right now, Pag-IBIG has manpower of about 8,000 which includes both permanent employees and agency-hired staff. To protect our employees and our members, we continue to adhere to the policies set by the government in our operations during the pandemic. We implement a science-based alternative working arrangement that promotes the safety of both our employees and our members. We are happy to say that it has proven effective as we have been able to continue serving our members even amid the pandemic.