Save up for Hajj thru Islamic bank’s plan

To help pilgrims get to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines (AIIBP) has launched the first Pilgrimage Savings Plan (PSP) in the country.

Local Muslims have long been studying Malaysia's widely-successful Tabung Haji savings program, and this was the first time a similar initiative was formally introduced in the Philippines.

Idiosa B. Ursolino, AIIBP vice president, presented the PSP at a recent international conference on Islamic finance and banking in Makati City conducted by the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NMCF).

She described the PSP as "a type of savings deposit account under the 'Wadiah yad dhamanah' (guaranteed safe-custody) principle" which intending pilgrims may avail themselves of for their future pilgrimage, either for hajj (major pilgrimage) or "umrah" (minor pilgrimage).

NCMF Secretary Bai Yasmin Busran-Lao cited at the event Muslims' difficulties in accessing government resources.

"Financial access is important in order for Muslim Filipinos to participate in the economic mainstream and seize the economic opportunities in the Philippines and the greater ASEAN region," she said. ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Islamic finance's main thrust is to promote permissible (halal) trading, cooperation, and social-economic justice, she added.

AIIBP and NCMF signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the PSP, with the bank's chairman and CEO Jose Luis L. Vera and Mehol K. Sadain, then the NCMF secretary.

Ursolino said a depositor for the PSP has four choices on when he or she intends to perform the hajj.

She said the plans are one-year PSP duration (meaning a pilgrim intends/ plans to perform the pilgrimage in a year's time), five years, 10 years and 15 years.