THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has expressed its support for Pag-Ibig Fund’s plan to increase the nearly four-decade-old mandatory monthly savings rate for both members and their employers starting January 2024.
In its letter to Pag-Ibig Fund, the TUCP reiterated its position in 2019 supporting the agency’s planned increase.
The trade union is one of the country’s largest labor organizations and is composed of 27 labor federations representing workers in the private and public sectors, seafarers, overseas Filipino workers, and workers from the informal sector.
“The TUCP believes that the adjustment in the savings rates will double the amount of members’ maturity claims, as well as other important benefits of Pag-Ibig (Fund) members, such as cash loans, calamity loans and housing loan entitlements. In addition, an adjustment is necessary to restore the lost real value of the P100 minimum contribution which was set back in 1986,” said lawyer Raymond Democrito Mendoza, who serves as president of the TUCP and as deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.
Increasing the rates shall enable the (Pag-Ibig) Fund to sustain its affordable home loan interest rates,” Mendoza added.
Under Pag-Ibig Fund’s new savings rates, the maximum monthly compensation to be used in computing the required two percent employee savings and two percent employer share of Pag-Ibig Fund members shall be increased to P10,000, from the current P5,000. As a result, the monthly savings of Pag-Ibig Fund members, for both the employee’s share and the employer’s counterpart, shall increase to P200 each from the
current P100.
Pag-Ibig Fund chief executive officer Marilene Acosta welcomed TUCP’s support as this will allow the agency to continue providing affordable home loans to its members in the coming years.
“It is also important to note that the increase in our monthly savings rates shall benefit our members the most because every peso they save will go to their Pag-Ibig Savings,” she said.
Acosta explained that under the new rates, members will have higher Pag-Ibig Savings that can earn them annual dividends, which they’ll receive upon membership maturity or retirement. With higher savings, members are entitled to higher multi-purpose and calamity loan amounts.
Pag-Ibig Fund was supposed to increase the monthly fund salary (MFS) in 2021, 2022, and 2023 so the maximum MFS would amount to P10,000 but decided to defer the matter in 2024 amid the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. (with PR)