By Perla Lena – PNA
ILOILO CITY — Delinquent and unregistered employers are encouraged to take advantage of the Penalty Condonation (PenCon) program of the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) or Pag-IBIG Fund being made available until 2019.
Pag-IBIG Fund Iloilo branch manager Dulce Ann Salovino, during Thursday’s press conference said that the penalty condonation for unregistered employers will be until August 30, 2019 while the deadline for delinquent employers is on July 26, 2019.
Delinquent employers are those who deducted their employees’ monthly members’ savings (MS) but were not able to remit to the Pag-IBIG.
“They can avail of a 100-percent discount for the penalties,” Salovino said.
Konrad Benjamin Chiongson, Iloilo branch marketing manager, said they have an ongoing enforcement campaign, where they send letters to unregistered and delinquent employers. After 90 days and there is no response, then the matter is endorsed to collecting agents.
“I think there are more unregistered employers waiting to be notified that they should join and are obliged to register themselves as Pag-IBIG members,” Chiongson said.
Gina Lanceta, Molo branch manager, estimated that within their area of coverage, more than 5,000 employers are not registered with Pag-IBIG.
They are working closely with the business process licensing office (BPLO) of local government units (LGUs) within their jurisdiction.
The Molo branch caters to clients from Arevalo, Molo and City Proper districts of Iloilo City; the municipalities of Alimodian, Leon and San Miguel in Iloilo; and in the provinces of Guimaras and Antique (except for the towns of Pandan and Libertad).
“They have to register their workers regardless of their employment status; whether part-timer or contractual basis,” she said.
Republic Act 9679 mandates the “universal coverage” under the Pag-IBIG Fund. This means, that aside from the formal sector or those employed in the government or private sector, those who are in the “other working groups” can also be their members.
Meantime, Pag-IBIG also recognized employers that registered the highest collections for the MS and the Modified Pag-IBIG 2 (MP2) covering the January to October 2018 period.
The top employers for the MS are Taytay sa Kauswagan Inc (TSKI), Western Visayas State University Medical Center and Iloilo Mission Hospital for the Iloilo Branch and the Department of Education Regional Office 6, the City Treasurer’s Office of Iloilo City and the provincial government of Antique under the Molo branch.
For the MP2, the top collectors from the Iloilo Branch included the West Visayas State University Medical Center, Department of Health-Center for Health Development 6 and the Alfaro Pharmacy while for the Molo Branch, those recognized were the Department of Education Regional Office 6, University of Antique-Sibalom and University of San Agustin. (PNA)
