Iligan flood victims with Pag-ibig, GSIS housing loans still have to pay–officials

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ILIGAN CITY – Officials of the Pag-ibig fund and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) said housing beneficiaries, who have fully-paid their loans and whose houses were damaged in the December flood, would not be entitled to insurance compensation anymore.

Likewise, being flood victims will not free those who have not fully paid their loans from their obligations.

The clarification was issued for flood victims here who thought that they would not be paying the two financial institutions anymore.

Shirly Parmisa Bisnar of Pag-ibig Fund Iligan City said that in Orchid Homes Subdivision here alone, which was among the areas devastated by the flood, some 300 housing units were damaged.

Even if their houses no longer exist, borrowers still have to pay their loans, Bisnar said.

Fully-paid clients, whose houses were damaged, would not be receiving other forms of assistance, except for calamity loans, she said.

Exoperio Balancar of GSIS Iligan said they were sending appraisers to determine the damage sustained by houses not fully-paid yet.

He said GSIS could only offer moratorium on amortizations but members should continue paying their housing loans.

Meanwhile, residents of Orchid Homes decried what they labeled as discrimination against them in so far as assistance for housing from the city government was concerned.

“It could not be denied that we are also victims and survivors, we have also greatly suffered damages and we are in need of intervention from the government,” Llantos said.

But instead of helping them, the city government turned them away, claiming they were rich and were not entitled to housing assistance, he said.

Mayor Lawrence Cruz said based on the assessment of the city social services office, residents of Orchid Homes earn more than P10,000 per month.

“This made them not qualified for shelter assistance,” he said.

Cruz said under the guidelines, based on the national shelter assistance policy, disaster victims earning similar amounts should not be entitled to housing assistance.

But he said the city council was drafting a local measure that would make all eligible flood victims – whether they resided or not on subdivisions — to be entitled to the shelter assistance program by the city government.