Employers and exporters are asking Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-Ibig for penalty condonation and longer payment plan to settle their outstanding obligations to help businesses recover amid massive closures of establishments due financial difficulties during this pandemic.
This was raised in a joint letter to Pag-Ibig CEO Acmad Rizaldy P. Moti, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), and the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport).
According to the group, a total of 35,049 establishments nationwide have filed for permanent closure since 2020 resulting in 710,417 displaced workers.
In line with this, the groups are requesting Pag-Ibig to extend help in easing the burden of Filipino business owners who were affected by the pandemic by offering a penalty condonation program for businesses who failed to remit their employees’ savings within the past two years.
The groups are also requesting that these business owners applying for a penalty condonation be given a longer payment plan to settle all their outstanding obligations with Pag-IBIG Fund.
Since majority of business owners were affected in the recent years, the groups urged Pag-Ibig to also extend the same consideration to these establishments, who may still have outstanding penalty due for payment to the agency prior 2020. Doing so, they said, will help keep businesses afloat during these trying times.
“In the spirit of helping employers recover from the effects of this pandemic, it is our earnest desire to be of assistance to our stakeholders in the myriad of burdens that they are facing during this time of national health crisis,” the groups said.
The letter to Moti was signed by PCCI Acting President Edgardo G. Lacson, ECOP President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., and Philexport Chairman George T. Barcelon.