Required ba ang Pagibig Membership para makakuha ng OEC?
Filipinos urged to join Home Development Fund
Web posted at: 3/15/2010 6:5:12
Source ::: The Peninsula
Sharmaine Pamela Bautista, information officer of the POLO-OWWA in Qatar, explains before Filipino community leaders the benefits of the new Pag-IBIG fund law.
By CHRIS V PANGANIBAN
DOHA: Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Qatar are now obliged with a new law to register with the Philippine government’s Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) or more popularly known as Pag-IBIG fund.
The new law enacted through Republic Act 9697 (RA 9697) and takes effect since January 1 this year makes it already mandatory for all OFWs around the world to be covered with Pag-IBIG fund.
Sharmaine Pamela Bautista, information officer of the Philippine Overseas Labour Office-Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (POLO-OWWA), told community leaders during a meeting at the Philippine Embassy over the weekend that the new law would make it beneficial for them for their savings on their retirement, emergency short term loan and housing loan.
“Pag-IBIG fund has been always associated with government housing programme and we want to clarify that with the new law, this also covers retirement benefits from their provident savings,” Bautista said. The implementing rules of RA 9697 provide that all OFWs, whether land-based or sea-based, and those employed by foreign-based employers, should register with the Pag-IBIG fund.
Bautista said monthly amortization for members of Pag-IBIG Overseas Programme (POP) is just a hundred pesos or roughly about QR10 and with their prescribed contribution OFWs are already covered by provident savings for retirement, the popular housing loan and the short-term emergency loan.
She said OFW voluntary members under the POP needs to register at the POLO-OWWA to update their records by filling up the Member’s Data Form downloadable at the Pag-IBIG fund website (www.pagibigfund.gov.ph) in case of the changes in their personal information.
Bautista clarified their office is not collecting fees for those filling up the Members Data Form even as they already required it especially vacationing OFWs securing Overseas Employment Certificates from the POLO-OWWA. “Contrary to feedbacks, we don’t collect fees for the form,” she said.
