Vice President Manuel “Noli” De Castro on Tuesday announced that the state-run fund Pag-IBIG will extend a three-month moratorium on payments of amortizations to the victims.

De Castro, who is also the concurrent chairman of the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees, also proclaimed that members whose houses have been severely damaged can avail of the home reconstruction and rehabilitation loan program on top of their calamity and regular housing loans

According to De Castro members can avail of the rehabilitation loan within 60 days starting October 5, 2009. On the other hand, De Castro said the moratorium will start on September 26, 2009 and will expire on December 31, 2009. Applications for availment of the loan moratorium may be filed with the Pag-IBIG branches where the loan is maintained within 30 days from October 5, 2009.

De Castro explained that the reason for the short duration of the moratorium is that 80 percent of their total funds have been loaned out. If they extend the moratorium longer the fund will suffer.

He said to qualify for the moratorium, the member-borrower must be updated with his membership contributions at point of application as well as with his short-term and housing loan payments.

Also earlier, De Castro similarly approved a moratorium on the loan payments of beneficiaries under the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) implemented by the Social Housing Finance Corporation and the relocation programs of the National Housing Authority.