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In the interest of the service and pursuant to Board Resolution No. 109, Series of 1991, dated June 3, 1991, the Regional Office Unit in Cebu (ROU-VII-Cebu) is hereby instructed to pilot the decentralization of the Pre-departure Loan Program in Cebu to expedite the granting of the PDL loan to applicants residing in the Visayas and Mindanao areas. With the establishment of one-stop processing center of the POEA in Cebu City, the Regional Office Unit (ROU-VII-Cebu) thereat shall henceforth, until further advised, process and approve applications for pre-departure loans in the aforementioned regions instead of sending them to Head office in Manila for approval and release. Pending decentralization of the program for all the regions, ROU-VII-Cebu shall serve as the focal processing center for other regional office units located in the Visayas and Mindanao.

I
Policies and Guidelines

1. Nature and Purpose of Loan — Pre-departure loan is a financial assistance program for newly-hired overseas contract workers (OCWs) aimed at providing them with certain amount of money to help defray documentation expenses prior to departure.

2. Coverage — The loan shall be extended to newly-hired OCWs with valid employment offers and confirmed departure schedule.

3. Entitlement — The pre-departure loan can be availed of by newly-hired OCWs (land-based and sea-based) who have at least one recorded paid contribution to OWWA fund.

4. Loanable Amount — The maximum loanable amount under the Pre-departure Loan shall be P5,000.00 based on the following schedule:

Salary	Loanable Amount	Salary of co-maker
		Monthly	Annually
US$ 450.00 — above	P5,000.00	P3,703.00	P44,444.40
350.00 — 449.00	4,500.00	3,333.33	39,999.96
250.00 — 349.00	4,000.00	2,962.97	35,555.64
200.00 — 249.00	3,500.00	2,592.59	31,111.08
150.00 — 199.00	2,500.00	1,851.86	22,222.32

5. Terms and Conditions

a. Loan Period — the pre-departure loan is payable within six (6) months from the release of the loan. This includes one (1) grace period and five (5) months equal payment period.

b. Interest — the loan is interest free if paid within the scheduled installment due dates.

c. Handling Charges — an administrative handling fee of 4% shall be deducted from the loan proceeds.

d. Default — failure to pay two (2) consecutive installments shall render the entire obligation due and demandable.

e. Penalty Charge — a penalty charge of 1% per month shall be imposed on unpaid amortization/due obligation.

f. Loan requirements — the loan applicant is required to accomplish and submit the loan application forms together with the following requirements:

1. Xerox copy of Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC); OCW Info Sheet and Contract of Employment duly certified true copy from the original by the POEA;
2. Xerox copy of Passport/Seaman's book (with OCW's name, picture and validity date) duly certified true copy from the original by the Agency Manager;
3. Xerox copy of Visa/NOC, Working Permit and Plane Ticket with confirmed flight schedule duly certified true copy from the original by the Agency Manager; and
4. Original copy of latest Income Tax Return (ITR) and Tax Withheld Certificate (W-2) of locally, and gainfully employed co-maker and certificate of employment indicating basic salary, position and length of service together with employee's Identification Card (ID).

A co-maker is any person except spouse, of good moral standing and has the capacity to pay.

6. Others — As a matter of policy, availment of the program shall be open only to applicant with no outstanding loan account under his name, either as principal borrower or as a co-maker to another borrower. Outstanding loans previously contracted shall be first liquidated before any applicant under this program is accorded the loan privilege.

II
Revolving Fund

A revolving fund of P100,000.00 which is hereby initially appropriated for this purpose shall be immediately transferred and placed under the full responsibility of ROU-Cebu. For control and accounting purposes, the fund shall be immediately deposited with LBP (OWWA account) and treated in the books of ROU-VII-Cebu as separate and distinct from other funds for other programs. The fund shall be used to service accounts for this Program covering loans granted/approved under the pre-departure loan (PDL) program for applications filed in ROU-Cebu or thru other regional office units in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

III
Booking and Collection

The regional Office Unit in Cebu shall maintain adequate individual subsidiary ledgers for the loan accounts (PDL) and shall be responsible for its efficient collection. It shall also be the responsibility of concerned regional office units in case the applications are filed thru them, to help in the collection of loan accounts within its jurisdictional area. Payments received by other ROUs in other regions for the account of loan borrowers whose loan records are maintained in Cebu should be remitted to ROU-VII-Cebu accordingly in the same manner remittances to Head Office are made, which are by telegraphic transfers. When remitting thru telegraphic transfers, the remitting office shall send the receiving office in separate mail advice details of the remittance for whose account/s the payment/s is/are intended, indicating among others the dates of payment, the name of the accountees/payors, amount and the identification of the Loan Program. Depending on the convenience of the ROUs, PDL remittances received by them for account of either the Head Office or for ROU-VII-Cebu may be done on a monthly basis preferably at the end of the month within ten (10) days following the reference month, provided such remittances shall not be later than one (1) month from receipt of the payment.

IV
Disbursement

Drawings against the Fund representing releases of loan proceeds, shall be signed by the OWWA regional Supervisor and counter-signed as usual by the DOLE Regional Director or his/her authorized representative in the absence of or until a designated Cashier or another officer in the Regional Office Unit has been named and duly authorized. For the immediate purpose of ROU-Cebu office, therefore, and until such change is effected, all request/s for Fund disbursement/s by the Regional Office Unit (ROU-VII-Cebu) shall continue to approved by the DOLE Regional Director or his authorized representative.

V
Reports

For management and monitoring purposes, ROU-VII-Cebu shall submit to the Loan Programs Department (LPD) a monthly report on Loan Releases and Collections for both the Pre-departure Loan (PDL) and the Family Assistance Loan (FAL) programs not later than the 10th day following the reference month in accordance with prescribed formats. The ROU-Supervisor shall see to it that reportorial requirements are strictly and promptly complied with accordingly.

Account Codes — The following account codes are hereby prescribed for ROU-VII-Cebu for the purpose of the program herein provided:

Accounts	Account Code
Cash in Bank	8-70-320 VII (PDL)
Accounts Receivable (PDL)	8-71-908 V (PDL)
Trust Fund (PDL)	8-84-400 V (PDL)
Interest Income (PDL)	1-56-300 V
Miscellaneous Income	1-58-300 V
Withholding Tax/ Expenses (PDL)	1-58-300 V
Bank Charges (PDL)	3-06-302 V
Miscellaneous Expenses	3-06-306 V

VII
Repealing Provisions

All previous issuances of the Secretariat which are inconsistent with any of the provisions of this MOI shall be deemed repealed or modified accordingly.

VIII
Effectivity

This Memorandum of Instructions shall take effect immediately.

Adopted: 30 July 1991

(Sgd.) ATANACIO V. MARONILLA
Administrator