'Premyo Bonds' offer budget investing, crack at P1 million, hotel unit

MANILA -- For as little as P500 or a Starbucks coffee date, Filipinos can now invest in government securities, the proposition sweetened by a shot at a P1 million raffle prize, the country's National Treasurer said, as she sought to make investing more accessible to the masses.

The P3 billion "Premyo Bonds" (Prize Bonds) offer shrinks the size of the typical debt paper 10 times to P500 from P5,000. At 3 percent interest, a P10,000 investment will earn P240 based on a sample computation, compared to P90 on a time deposit. It will also give the investor 20 entries to the raffle, drawn quarterly.

"Premyo Bonds para sa Bayan intends to pull in small savers and our overseas kabababyan to share in our nation building," National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told ABS-CBN News.

"Premyo Bonds, in small ways hopefully, could demonstrate that, done right, digitalization of finance offers gateway to achieve significant inroads towards financial inclusion and payments efficiency," she said.

The bond sale, dubbed "Invest Pa More, Panalo Pa More Premyo Bonds Para Sa Bayan" started in late November and will run until Dec. 13, she said.

Investing was simplified to 3 easy steps: inquire in banks, fill up the forms and pay the initial cost of P500. It can also be done online at www.treasury.gov.ph.

Non-cash prizes will also be raffled off including a unit at DoubleDragon Properties Corp’s Hotel 101-Fort in Taguig.

The real estate company collaborated with the government to "incentivize" first time retail investors who want to diversify their savings, its chairman Edgar "Injap" Sia II said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.

Investments can be made through selling agents including BDO Unibank, BDO Capital, Chinabank, China Bank Capital, Development Bank of the Philippines, First Metro Investment, Land Bank of the Philippines and Metroban, among others, the Bureau of Treasury said.