More Pinoys avail of Pag-IBIG loans

CEBU, Philippines —  More Filipinos were able to avail of home loans through the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) or Pag-IBIG Fund in 2022, hitting a total of 105,212 members and amounting to P118 billion.

The total value of home loan releases in 2022 increased by 21 percent compared to the P97 billion disbursed in 2021.

According to the report, with this amount, Pag-IBIG financed the acquisition and construction of 105,212 homes for its members. This is equivalent to 11 percent increase from the 94,533 homes financed in 2021, a new record high.

“This is very good news because as the amount of home loans we release increases, so does the number of Filipinos who now have homes of their own,” said Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar in a statement.

Acuzar, who also heads the 11-member Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees, said that this encouraging performance is a testament to the government’s effort to resolve the country’s housing backlog, which is in line with the objective of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s “Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino” program.

The Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Program is a flagship program of the Marcos administration aimed at addressing the country’s housing needs by building one million houses each year for the next six years.

Marcos earlier expressed the need to provide families with shelter, most especially the poor as well as those employed people who struggle to have decent housing.

Pag-IBIG Fund Chief Executive Officer Marilene Acosta noted that the number of housing units financed in 2022 also marks the first time that the agency has financed more than 100,000 housing units in a single year.

According to Acosta,  out of the number of housing units financed by the agency last year, 18,657, or 18 percent, were socialized housing units availed by members from the minimum-wage and low-income sectors.

“We at Pag-IBIG Fund have always strived to provide our members -- the Filipino workers -- the means to have their own homes through affordable shelter financing. That is why we take great pride in achieving a record high number of housing units financed in 2022 because it means that we have empowered even more Filipinos in gaining their own homes,” she said.

For 2023, Acosta assured Pag-IBIG members that the agency will continue to provide them with affordable home loan.