Duterte to Congress: GSIS released P3.8B in emergency loans amid COVID-19 crisis

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has provided P3.8 billion in emergency loans to its members as well as to old-age pensioners as the country continues to grapple with the threat of COVID-19, President Rodrigo Duterte's latest report showed.

According to Duterte's ninth weekly report to Congress issued on Monday, a total of 220,533 active members and pensioners of GSIS have received the P3.8 billion emergency loans as of May 20.

This is on top of the P126.57 million granted to 2,841 active members and pensioners who have applied Consolidated Loan, Policy Loan, and Pension Loan online, the report added.

At the same time, the GSIS also released total net proceeds of P1.32 billion to 47,223 active members and pensioners who applied for loan through the agency's Wireless Automated Processing System kiosks.

Section 4(aa) of the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act gives the President the authority to direct all banks, financing and lending companies, and other financial institutions like the GSIS to implement a minimum of 30-day grace period for the payment of all loans falling within the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period without incurring interest fees and other charges.

In line with this, Duterte said in his report that the Local Water Utilities Administration has approved 56 requests of water districts in the country to suspend the billing of their respective loan amortizations until the ECQ is lifted.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has also extended the temporary waiver of transaction fees for fund transfer instructions in the Philippine Payment and Settlement System (PhilPaSS) from April 1 until the quarantine period is lifted.

PhilPaSS, according to the report, is a "real-time gross settlement system... that processes and settles interbank high-value payment transactions of banks through the demand deposit accounts of the bank maintained by the BSP."

"The Development Bank of the Philippines has extended the moratorium on loan repayments to 45 borrower accounts through its RESPONSE Program, 65 bringing the number to 351 borrower accounts with approved offering tickets far moratorium of repayments, as of 20 May 2020," Duterte's report also stated.

"Since the commencement of the ECQ period, the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation has validated 2,531 online applications for moratorium on housing loan payments," it added.

As of May 25, a total of 14,319 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the Philippines, with 873 deaths and 3,323 recoveries. -NB, GMA News