The housing loan restructuring bill will be the saving grace for nearly 370,000 homeowner who are in danger of losing their homes due to delinquency in payment of loan amortization. I’m happy that the House of the Representatives and the Senate put aside their bickering and put up a united stand in pursuing approval of the House Bill 4220, the Socialized and Low-Cost Housing Loan Restructuring Act of 2008 in a short time. The bill has been forwarded for bicameral deliberations.

The measure seeks to implement a three-year restructuring program for housing loans. The proposed law removes a requirement in the previous condonation program that the combined family income of an applicant must not exceed P300,000. It also provided that the application for restructuring shall be charged a processing fee lower than those charged under previous programs and no downpayment shall required.

Also, all penalties and surcharges shall be condoned upon approval of the restructuring application provided that a reasonable portion of the accrued interests will be condoned and that the remaining accrued interest will be treated as a non-interest bearing principal to be equally spread during the term of the restructured loan. The restructured original principal loan will be imposed interests of only 6 percent.

The loan structuring program is an urgent bill. I am hoping that our honorable senators and congressmen will pass the Housing Loan Restructuring Bill and the president sign it on the first week of September. This priority bill will not only ease the housing borrowers’ burden of mental and emotional stress of losing their homes but also help them cope up the financial crisis and aggravate the country’s woes.

Tags: condonation program, financial, housing loan restructuring bill, housing loans, loan amortization