NHMFC offers last chance for delinquent borrowers

MindanaoToday.com | NHMFC offers last chance for delinquent borrowers 

By: Uriel Quilinguing

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The state’s home mortgage financing firm reminded last week all delinquent loan borrowers to avail of its ongoing discount on interests and penalty condonation program before it ends on August 30, this year.

The program, “Todo Diskwento” of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC) started on September 1, 2023 under Board Resolution No. 4082. Its implementing guidelines in Circular No. 088 provides, among others, a 100-percent condonation on penalties and interests on loans.

Section 2 of Circular No. 088 states: The program intends to provide NHMFC’s borrowers one last chance to turn around their delinquency hence (sic) salvage their loans from either sale…or outright foreclosure.

“As much as possible, we will not foreclose them (delinquent housing loans),” said Rhoderick Serra, officer-in-charge of the NHMFC Cagayan de Oro, assuring borrowers in Northern Mindanao and Caraga of assistance to ensure amortisized properties are kept by owners.

In a Meet the Press forum in Cagayan de Oro on Wednesday, February 7, Serra said they recognize some failed to pay monthly amortizations on time due to unforeseen events, including lose of employment, after their housing loans were granted.

Eligible borrowers for “Todo Diskwento” are owners of housing units that have not been foreclosed and the delinquencies cover a period of four months, of a year, and over a year, as of August 30, 2023.

He said that aside from 100-percent condonation on interests, 60-percent discounts on penalties may also be granted upon full payment of arrearages, or under a 25-percent-downpayment and six-month-to-pay scheme.

When “Todo Diskwento” was launched on September 1 last year, NHMFC President Renato Tobias announced the program is targeted to benefit some 2,700 delinquent borrowers based on their list of accounts in arrears by four to 12 months, as of August 31, 2023. All are qualified to avail of the 100-percent discount on unpaid interests.

In the same forum, Leonida Sabio, the chief collection specialist of NHMFC Cagayan de Oro said they have some 1,800 qualified borrowers in their list for Northern Mindanao and Caraga regions.

Sabio said that 39 percent or about 700 of the targeted beneficiaries have already availed of the “Todo Diskwento” program, as of the end of January this year. Delinquencies, she said, have been relatively high as there are borrowers who have not paid from the time of takeout 25 years ago.

The premise by which Circular No.088 was issued on August 31, 2023 was that the “Todo Diskwento” is NHMFC’s preparation “to embark on a bulk-sale of its non-performing loans/non-performing assets (NPL/NPA).”

The one-year program is offered to delinquent borrowers “pending the finality of the sale and to sustain its cash-flow, thus the Board of Directors (of the NHMFC) approved the “Todo Diskwento” program. (MT)

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