IN my prayers, I’m always thankful to God for his blessings – my family, work and friends.

Since I express my gratitude in detail to the Great Provider, I also never fail to mention the shelter he provided me and my loved ones.

Our humble house didn’t come straight from heaven. It passed many years ago through the office of former Vice President Noli De Castro — who was then Housing Czar — before reaching the Home Mutual Development Fund or Pag-Ibig.

Pag-IBIG then lent me the money to acquire the house of our dream. Although I’m still paying the monthly amortization for the housing loan, it has become very friendly in recent years, enabling me to get closer to full payment.

The housing program of Pag-IBIG works. I’m glad that it continues to grow and help more Filipinos to gain their own homes.

Driven by the strong collection of home loan payments in the last 10 months, Pag-IBIG Fund’s performing loans ratio climbed to 89.96 percent in October, exceeding the agency’s year-end target by 196 basis points.

From January to October, home loan payments amounted to P57.58 billion, up by 30 percent or P13.31 billion higher than the P44.27 billion collected in the same period last year.

The amount is a record high in terms of home loan payments collected by the agency for any January to October period.

“We are happy to report that the amount of home loan payments we have collected so far this year is the highest in our history. This is good news as it reflects the continued recovery of our borrowers from the financial difficulties caused by the pandemic,” according to Pag-IBIG.

Our strong collections are key in maintaining our financial sustainability, as the amount we collect are ploughed back to our housing portfolio so that more members can avail of affordable home loans from Pag-IBIG Fund,” it said.

This is one of our ways of heeding President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s call in solving the country’s housing backlog within the next six years,” Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar, who heads both the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and the 11-member Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees, said in a statement.

Pag-IBIG Fund chief executive officer Marilene Acosta said that with its record-high collections, the agency has exceeded its year-end target on its performing loans ratio (PLR) earlier than projected.

As of October, Pag-IBIG Fund’s PLR stood at 89.96 percent surpassing its yearend target of 88 percent, while gaining 1,028 basis points from September 2021 figures when the agency’s PLR dipped to 79.68 percent following the effects of the pandemic.

“We thank our members for their efforts in fulfilling their payment obligations on their Pag-IBIG Housing Loans. It shows their growing appreciation that their on-time payments allow us to continue financing the loans of other members who wish to secure housing loans of their own,” Acosta said.

“And, as we all continue to recover from the pandemic, we shall keep working hard to maintain our collections strong and our PLR high,” she said.

“These would allow us to not only address the loan needs of our members, but to also keep our interest rates low despite the upward market trend. These are all part of our Lingkod Pag-IBIG commitment to provide accessible and affordable home loans for each Filipino worker,”s he added.

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