Pag-IBIG Fund offers P400-M calamity loan to Pangasinenses

By Hilda Austria

DAGUPAN CITY – The Pag-IBIG Fund on Thursday urged members residing or working in areas in Pangasinan that are under a state of calamity to avail of its calamity loan assistance as the program has around P400 million in available funds.
    Pag-IBIG Dagupan branch manager Corina Joyce Calaguin, in a virtual press conference hosted by the Philippine Information Agency Pangasinan on Thursday, said member-residents or employees in localities under state of calamity may avail of the short-term loan amounting to 80 percent of their total savings with Pag-IBIG.
    “Calamity loan may be used in the repair of their houses or whatever they need as it is intended to give them immediate assistance,” she said.
    She added the funding for the calamity assistance is ready and the residents may apply within 90 days from the declaration of their locality.
    The nine local government units that declared a state of calamity in Pangasinan are Dagupan City, Calasiao, Mangaldan, Mangatarem, Sta. Barbara, Binmaley, Lingayen, Bautista and Basista towns.
    Calaguin said members can apply over the counter at any Pag-IBIG branch, online through the Pag-IBIG mobile application, or through a collective application by their establishment or agency.
    She said the interest rate is only 5.95 percent per annum and payable for up to three years or 36 months.
“There is also a three-month grace period for the start of amortization after the loan was processed,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Pangasinan provincial office assured consumers on Thursday that it will be conducting price and supply monitoring of basic commodities in areas where the prize freeze is in effect.

DTI-Pangasinan provincial director Natalia Dalaten, during the same virtual conference, said no establishments have so far violated the price freeze.

“We based the price of basic commodities from the latest price monitoring report prior to the calamity,” she said.

She added the price freeze will last for 60 days after its declaration.

Dalaten also assured the public that the supply of basic commodities in these areas is adequate for the next three months. -- PNA