Loans condoned by NHMFC hit P2.5-B

Some 40,920 delinquent housing loan borrowers have received a total of P2.541-billion worth of loan relief from the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC) as incentive for updating their payments of arrearranges, loan restructuring or full payment of their accounts.

This was announced by Housing Sec. Michael T. Defensor, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, and concurrent chairman of the NHMFC board of directors.

"By waiving the payment of their loan penalties, which otherwise are part of the delinquent borrowers’ loan payables, President Arroyo’s administration is helping distressed homeborrowers cope with the prevailing economic conditions while at the same time this will improve the quality of NHMFC’s mortgage loan portfolio," Defensor said.

In a progress report on the implementation of R.A. 8501, the Housing Loan Condonation Act of 1998, Angelico T. Salud, NHMFC president, cited that of the amount of penalties condoned, P203 million went to 4,232 borrowers who fully paid their accounts; P244 million to 8,181 borrowers who fully updated their arrearages; and P2.09 billion to 28,502 borrowers who had their accounts restructured.

The total penalties waived consist of P218-million in 1998; P868.8-million in 1999; P874-million in 2000; P393-million in 2001 (15.5%); and 187.8-million in 2002, according to Salud.

On the other hand, of the 40,920 homeborrowers who availed of the penalty condonation program (available up to Dec. 31 this year), 29,647 (72.5%) have loans bearing 6%-12%; and 11,273 (27.5%) bearing interest rates of over 12% to 16% per annum, Salud added.