Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has commended the Home Development Mutual Fund (more popularly known as the PAG-IBIG Fund) for its exemplary performance in providing affordable housing to mostly low-income earners, while expanding financial inclusion among Filipinos, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
Dominguez cited PAG-IBIG’s accomplishment in 2020 of providing easy-to-pay housing loans to close to 17,000 of its members from the minimum-wage and low-income sectors, and the Fund’s high-earning Modified PAG-IBIG 2 (MP2) Savings Program that encourages its members to save and earn more from their contributions.
The Finance Secretary also congratulated PAG-IBIG for reaching an all-time high of P12.11 billion on its housing loan disbursements in a single month in December last year, which benefited 12,275 members, and said he looks forward to the Fund surpassing this level consistently each month thereafter.
“We look forward to new records that the agency will achieve this year. The housing program is a key component in our economic recovery strategy. This should help create more jobs in the construction sector,” said Dominguez in his message during the presentation on Wednesday of the PAG-IBIG Chairman’s Report for 2020.
Secretary Eduardo del Rosario is the chairman of the board of trustees of the PAG-IBIG Fund, while Secretary Dominguez is the ex-officio vice chairman.
Despite the difficulties and challenges of the past year, Dominguez said PAG-IBIG remained financially sound “and poised to contribute even more in meeting the housing needs of our people.”
PAG-IBIG reported a net income of P31.18 billion in 2020, the fourth consecutive year that it surpassed the P30-billion net income mark, which was achieved despite the pandemic.
Dominguez said PAG-IBIG’s all-time high housing disbursements in December last year “does not only show increased homeownership among Filipinos” but also “means that the Fund is able to take part in ensuring the safety of our people, especially during this time of a pandemic.”
He said he expects the PAG-IBIG Fund would continue to be “even more relentless” in closing the housing gap and spurring domestic activity, especially as the government rolls out its recovery program this year.
“To the men and women of the PAG-IBIG Fund, thank you for the hard work and professionalism. Please continue to be a dependable partner of the Filipino people in achieving their milestones in life,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez pointed out that PAG-IBIG’s voluntary MP2 Savings Program, meanwhile, has become popular among its members, “which underscores the trust and confidence of our people in the agency’s skills and dedication to serve its members.”
This savings program, which generated a record P13.3 billion in savings from its members last year despite the pandemic, adds to the government’s efforts to open up more investment opportunities for Filipinos, Dominguez said.
“The more small investors save their money by putting them in high-earning savings facilities such as the MP2, the closer we are to moving towards achieving President Duterte’s goal of financial inclusion and a comfortable life for all Filipinos,” he added.
The P13.3 billion saved by members under the MP2 program also represents an 11 percent increase from the savings in the previous year.
PAG-IBIG released P7.1 billion in socialized housing loans in 2020, which benefited 16,975 members belonging to the minimum-wage and low-income sectors.
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