Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are beginning to secure their first family homes through the Expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program, the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) reported.

The flagship housing initiative of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has reached beneficiaries like Rosemarie Libanan, who has worked in Saudi Arabia for 18 years. Libanan recently acquired a unit at Crystal Peak Estates in Pampanga, her family’s first owned residence.

“We didn’t have our own house before,” Libanan said in an online interview with the DHSUD. “I had been looking for a long time, but I couldn’t afford it before because the monthly payments were too heavy.”

To make homeownership more attainable, the DHSUD and the Pag-IBIG Fund have exempted OFWs from the standard monthly salary cap. These workers are considered priority beneficiaries and are granted access to a subsidized 3 percent interest rate.

In Nueva Ecija, Sharon Joy Capyo, whose husband works in Japan, recently received a unit at the Palayan City Township Project. She said her family had previously been living with relatives.

“We are happy to finally have our own home,” Capyo said. “Many thanks to President Marcos... we were given the opportunity to have a house that we can truly afford to pay for.”

DHSUD Secretary Jose Ramon Aliling said the president’s directive is to make housing faster and more accessible for every Filipino, particularly those working abroad.

“Through the Expanded 4PH, we are giving them the chance to experience the fruit of their sacrifice — a home of their own that they can return to,” Aliling said.

Other early beneficiaries of the Palayan City project include Jeremy Leyno, a painter in Japan, and Madelaine Ann Mallare, a nurse in Saudi Arabia.

The 4PH program continues to launch vertical and township developments nationwide and Aliling stressed that the program aims to provide more than just shelter, serving as a symbol of the “sacrifice, hope, and success” of the Filipino workforce.