ShareThisMANILA – Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile challenged on Thursday the Pag-IBIG Fund to file falsification charges against Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. for allegedly making accounts of hundreds of questionable buyers just to get some P7 billion loan.
”Pag-IBIG should file falsification case against this guy,” Enrile said, referring to Globe Asiatique (GA) chairman and President Delfin Lee who attended the Senate inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the housing loan transactions between Pag-IBIG and GA.
JPE CONGRATULATES NEWLY APPOINTED AFP CHIEF-OF-STAFF: Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile congratulates Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff Ricardo David Jr., who was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments (CA) to the rank of Lieutenant General, during the CA hearing at the Senate.
”I challenge you to file falsification case against him so that he can be examine in the court and we will punish him,” the furious Senate dared the Pag-IBIG officials.
Enrile said he suspects that GA colluded with some Pag-IBIG officials that led to the release of the P6.68 billion loan for the construction of the Globe Asiatique’s Xevera project in Pampanga.
Lee denied the suspicion of Enrile, saying GA has not received any special accommodation from the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG.
”In fairness to Pag-IBIG, they are not like that,” said Lee, adding that Pag-IBIG knew very well his background because “I’m a developer of Pag-IBIG for 16 years now.”
The GA official clarified that he did not falsify any document because it was not his company that applied for P7 billion loan but the buyers of the Xevera housing project.
”What did I falsify? I’m not the one who applied for loan. My buyers are the one who applied for loans. I’m just a guarantor so, I’m the victim here because the moment they will not pay, I have to pay it,” Lee explained.
However, Pag-IBIG officer-in-charge Emma Linda Faria told the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies that GA paid for the monthly amortizations of buyer whom it had admitted were questionable even after an agency audit found these buyers to be non-existent.
”Pag-IBIG did not receive a single payment from these supposed buyers since their loans were approved,” Faria said.
Faria said Pag-IBIG entered into an agreement with GA in 2008 in response to the need to provide housing for self-employed workers, househelps and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). These workers were later categorized as other working groups (OWGs).
Former Pag-IBIG Fund chairman and former Vice President Noli de Castro said the Pag-IBIG entered into an agreement with Globe Asiatique on a pilot basis due to different approach of the developer to build low-cost housing project.
”We were really impressed with the project because it has almost complete amenities including church, school and public market,” De Castro said.
Faria said the Fund discovered multiple deficiencies in documentation in Xevera housing loan accounts that include over 400 accounts from borrowers denied by Pag-IBIG and another 1,000 borrowers who could not be located.
Since the discovery of questionable borrowers, Pag-IBIG has issued 2,108 notices of buyback to GA with a value of P1.45 billion.
Lee said during the hearing that he cannot buy back all the houses built under Xevera project but later assured to the media that the P7 billion loan is protected “because the collateral value is worth more than that.”
Since Lee started transacting with Pag-IBIG, Faria said the Fund has already released a total P12.582 worth loans for GA, including P2.8 billion representing various projects.
Lee insisted that the 1,600 buyers of Xevera project were not spurious.
Pag-IBIG Fund’s on-leave Chief Executive Officer Jaime Fabiana said Globe Asiatique-like cases have also been discovered in Tacloban involving P59 million loan and in Zamboanga amounting to almost P40 million.
Fabiana, however, assured that Pag-IBIG is religiously addressing the problems, assuring the Pag-IBIG Fund members that their money is secured despite negative reports brought by the GA controversy.
For his part, former Vice President De Castro remains hopeful that the spirit of partnership between Pag-IBIG and private sector will continue as an approach to housing delivery.
”With our meager resources, only through a working and vibrant government-private sector partnership can we even hope to make significant headway in eradicating the housing backlog that has plague our country for decades.