6-month moratorium on housing loan payment set

Vice President Jejomar Binay

Manila, Philippines — The National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC) on Monday announced that its borrowers who were affected by the heavy flooding caused by the monsoon rains may defer payment of their housing loans for six months.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, also chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the NHMFC Board of Directors, made the announcement after floods brought by the torrential monsoon rains submerged Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

“This is our way of helping out our fellow Filipinos who lost their homes and properties due to the floods,” Binay said in a statement.

The statement noted that the six-month moratorium would be effective from Aug. 15, 2012 to Feb. 15, 2013. It said interest and penalty charges should not be imposed within the period set.

It said that loan borrowers should apply for the program not later than Sept. 1, 2012.

“To qualify, applicants must present a barangay certification that they are bonafide residents and that their area was flooded or was declared under state of calamity,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the statement noted that borrowers who were no longer interested to return to their respective units may voluntarily surrender their properties through dacion en pago , as a mode of settlement of their loan obligations subject to terms and conditions under the law.

Dacion en pago, in Philippine law, is defined as “a special mode of payment whereby the debtor offers another thing to the creditor who accepts it as equivalent of payment of an outstanding obligation.”