#TodayInPhilippineHistory June 11, 1978, by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 1530, the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), more popularly known as the Pag-IBIG Fund was established to answer to the need for a national savings program and an affordable shelter financing for the Filipino worker. Pag-IBIG is an acronym which stands for Pagtutulungan sa Kinabukasan: Ikaw, Bangko, Industria at Gobyerno. Under the said law, there were two agencies that administered the Fund. The Social Security System (SSS) which handled the funds of private employees and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) handled the savings of government workers. Less than a year after on March 1, 1979, Executive Order No. 527 was signed directing the transfer of the administration of the Fund to the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation, which was one of the operating agencies of the then Ministry of Human Settlements. Seeing the need to further strengthen the stability and viability of the two funds, Executive Order No. 538 was issued on June 4, 1979, merging the funds for private and government personnel into what is now known as the Pag-IBIG Fund. However, it was only on December 14, 1980 when Pag-IBIG was made independent from the NHMFC with the signing of PD 1752, which amended PD 1530. With the improved law in effect, the Funds rule-making power was vested in its own Board of Trustees. Likewise, PD 1752 made Pag-IBIG membership mandatory for all SSS and GSIS member-employees. The administration Fund underwent some changes after former President Corazon C. Aquino assumed leadership of the country. Pag-IBIG contributions were suspended from May to July 1986. This gave way to the Presidential Task Force on Shelter to conduct a thorough review of the Fund and its operations. The task force later affirmed that Pag-IBIG Fund was run professionally and that there were no anomalies in the Fund.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 17:28:57 +0000