Senate probes Pag-IBIG housing loan mess

There must be some sort of connivance among employees of Pag-IBIG Fund and those of real estate developer Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. in a scam involving at least P6.6 billion in housing loan proceeds, Sen. Sergio “Serge" Osmeña III said Wednesday. “This is gross corruption. It’s unforgivable. There must be connivance here," Osmeña said during a Senate hearing on government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs). Emma Linda Faria, officer-in-charge of the Pag-IBIG Fund, said that Globe Asiatique was able to take out at least P6.6 billion in housing loan proceeds for buyers of its housing projects in Pampanga. But the units were not yet complete, or were below standard. Some were unoccupied, or were closed. Some of the buyers were allegedly fake members of Pag-IBIG, and others were ineligible for membership. Another group of buyers used spurious loan accounts. There were about 10,000 valid buyers, according to Faria. About 1,000 borrowers could not be located; 400 others had already claimed their loans; and 200 had complete documents. Osmeña said that Pag-IBIG “opened" the fund to the problem by allowing Globe Asiatique to get the loans on behalf of borrowers. Each unit was being sold at P750,000, payable in P5,000 monthly installments. “All the developer does is pay P5,000 a month. [It’s] absolute stupidity. This is totally unacceptable," he said. On Tuesday, Faria said that they are already in the process of blacklisting Globe Asiatique. Failed to validate loans Faria said that Globe Asiatique was “authorized" to receive loan applications and deliver the papers to Pag-IBIG via the express lane of the Home Development Mutual Fund housing program. The problem, said the Pag-IBIG OIC, was that Pag-IBIG regional office in Pampanga failed to validate the loans. In late 2009, there were “interventions" that threatened the safety of Pag-IBIG employees should they stop processing the loans, Faria said. Asked to elaborate, Faria said that the matter was already under investigation. “The Vice President [Jejomar Binay] has already ordered a fast investigation on the housing loan portfolio and charges will be filed at the soonest possible time." Binay, who heads the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), also chairs the board of trustees of Pag-IBIG. Former vice president and HUDCC chief Noli De Castro had earlier defended Globe Asiatique, saying that it was the fault of Pag-IBIG for not validating the loan applications. He likewise said that borrowers with incomplete documents might have also applied for housing loans through other realty developers. Osmeña said that the Senate plans to look into the controversy more extensively in future Senate hearings. —LRS/JE/VS, GMANews.TV