Vice President Manuel “Noli” de Castro has expressed optimism that the Home Development Mutual Fund’s (Pag-IBIG Fund) housing loans nationwide could still reach as high as P44.17 billion benefiting over 73,000 borrowers at the end of 2009 and, if ever, this will be the biggest number of borrowers for a single year in the Fund's entire history.

De Castro’s declaration came following the celebration of the state-owned Fund’s 29th anniversary and amidst the promise of more benefits to members especially with the recent signing into law of Republic Act 9679, otherwise known as the Home Development Mutual Fund Law of 2009.

According to De Castro, who is the concurrent chair of Pag-IBIG Fund’s Board of Trustees, membership across different regions in the country already reached 7.9 million. Of this number, Pag-IBIG has assisted over 1.5 million members by extending P29 billion in multipurpose loans.

He said in the area of housing, Pag-IBIG Fund has released loans worth nearly P37 billion to more than 61,000 members.

In the same vein, De Castro downplayed recent reports that noted a decrease of around 6,000 in membership in Mandaue this year.

He said the decrease was mainly due to the massive retrenchment among companies in Cebu, particularly in the Mactan Export Processing Zone at the height of the global financial crisis.

Currently, Mandaue has around 236,804 members compared to 242,357 listed in 2008.

The Vice President said that, on the contrary, nearby Cebu City has reported increase in membership which has now reached to 275,975.

However, this is just 94 percent of their 292,814 target for 2009. Next year, the Cebu City branch is targeting 331,000 members that will be given the chance to avail of Pag-IBIG Fund benefits.

Mandaue also reported that Pag-ibig released P1.47-billion short-term loans to 81,475 multipurpose cooperatives and individual borrowers.