Livelihood Loan - 'Excellent Opportunity' for Teachers

DepEd-Land Bank MOA

More than 60,000 Public school teachers, both in elementary and secondary of the Department of Education may have now the opportunity to avail the Livelihood Loan Facility (LLF) of the Land of the Philippines in a recent agreement signed by the Education Secretary and Land Bank President.

Education Secretary Br. Armin Luistro of Department of Education (DepEd) and Land Bank President Gilda E. Pico of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) providing the DepEd employees to avail of loans in the Land Bank with a lower interest rate than that of the private banks and other lending institutions.

Loan Requirements

The teacher may vail of LLF after meeting the following requirements:

1. He must be regular/permanent employees of DepEd.
2. He must be between 18 and 62 years of age.
3. He must have been in service for at least one year.
4. He must have LBP ATM card and maintain an LBP ATM Payroll account.
5. He must not have any pending criminal or administrative cases against him.
6. He must not have pending applications for retirement or retiring within the term of the loan.
7. He must have a monthly take home pay of at leas three thousand pesos (Php 3,000).

Collaterals

The Land Bank has agreed that the loans of the teachers could be secured by assigning their salaries, allowances, leave credits and other monetary deliverables to their bank account.

Interest Rate

The Land Bank will charge the teachers a fixed interest rate of 10.5% per annum. This rate is much lower than that of accredited DepEd's salary deduction program.

Philippine Money in various denominations

Release of Loans

After satisfying all those requirements for loan application, the loan applied by the teacher will be released through his Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card. Repayment for the said loan or his monthly amortization could be made over-the-counter through salary deductions.

A qualified teacher-borrower may avail of 8 months of his gross pay but not exceeding five hundred thousand pesos (Php 500,000). While a qualified Department officials may avail of one-million pesos (Php 1,000,000).

Persons in Attendance

The signing of MOA between Education Secretary Luistro and LBP President Pico was witnessed by LBP Senior Vice President OIC Branch Banking Sector Marilyn M. Tiongson, Department of Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, DOF Undersecretary Jeremias N. Paul, Jr., DepEd Undersecretary for Finance and Administration Francisco M. Varela, and DepEd Regional Directors and Finance Officers from Regions IV-A, IV-B, and NCR.(DepEd).

DepEd Secretary Luistro sensed that this momentous event is an "excellent opportunity" for the teachers and other DepEd employees in ameliorating their financial status because of the low interest rates charged by LBP.