MANILA -- Aiming to build the most number of housing units by any administration, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. urged the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), or the Pag-IBIG Fund on Tuesday to make its home mortgage financing more accessible to Filipinos to inspire them to have a shelter of their own and address the housing backlog.

Speaking during the Pag-IBIG Fund Chairman’s Report for Year 2023 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC), President Marcos acknowledged the recent shelter agency’s accomplishments, noting however, that “we are far from declaring mission accomplished,” with the huge housing backlog.

In the past two years, the President said he has seen how the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) and its attached agencies break out of their comfort zones, and tear down the walls that caged their ideas.

“And so with the same spirit, I urge the Pag-IBIG Fund to make its home mortgage financing even more accessible and to balance this with sustainability. This is to inspire Filipinos today, and the generations to come, to work hard to reach their goal of a house that they can call their own,” President Marcos told Pag-IBIG.

“With millions of our countrymen denied the right to decent shelter, the stakes could not be higher. So, our task is clear: To build the most number of housing units by any administration.”

According to the President, the challenge, including those in the Pag-IBIG, the housing sector, and the local government units, is to translate the recent gains into actual homes people can move into.

The Marcos administration has been implementing the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing Program aimed at addressing the need for decent housing and to build on the potential impact of a robust sector on the growing economy.

It has an ambitious goal of building one million low-cost housing units every year until the end of the President’s term.

The chief executive also highlighted during his address Pag-IBIG Fund’s accomplishments such as achieving the highest housing loan at PhP126.04 billion, aiding more than 96,000 Pag-IBIG Fund members gain new or better homes.

Pag-IBIG posted Short Term Loans amounting to PhP59.31 billion, covering 2.65 million members and an annual net income of PhP43.79 billion.

It has highest total assets at PhP925.61 billion and highest member dividends amounting PhP48.76 billion.

Pag-IBIG Fund is a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) under the DHSUD responsible for the administration of the national savings program and affordable shelter financing for Filipinos. (PND)