Pag-IBIG officials must be held accountable for loan mess – Osmeña

Higher-ranking officials of the Pag-IBIG Fund should also be held accountable for the controversial housing loan mess involving real estate developer Globe Asiatique, Senator Sergio "Serge" Osmeña III said Friday. The Department of Justice (DOJ) had recommended filing of a syndicated estafa case against Globe Asiatique president and CEO Delfin Lee, Globe Asiatique officers Christina Sagun and Cristina Salagan, and Pag-IBIG Fund employee Alex Alvarez. The DOJ's Task Force on Securities and Business Scam said that there was basis to allegations that the respondents conspired with one another in a "ghost borrowers" scheme that supposedly defrauded the government about P6.65 billion. Under the scheme, Globe Asiatique supposedly used fictitious buyers to secure loans from Pag-IBIG Fund for the Xevera housing project in Mabalacat, Pampanga. Osmeña, however, said that this could not have happened without the Pag-IBIG Fund's board approval. "You could not let that go through [without] board approval. That needs board approval for sure," he said in an interview Friday. "It certainly would not have been released without some shenanigans from the higher ups," he added. But the senator did not categorically state that former Vice President Noli De Castro, as former Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chief and Pag-IBIG board chairman, should also be indicted together with Lee and the others. "No direct evidence" "I don’t know. But he was chairman, he had certain responsibilities. Maybe he was absent, we don’t know," Osmeña said. "[There is] no direct evidence. Nobody said, ‘I paid Noli.’ But I did not have enough time to look at all the documents. Sinabi ko sa NBI, this is your job. I turned over the evidence to them," he added. However, he said he hopes those who will be held accountable for the crime would not be limited to lower-ranking officials and employees of Pag-IBIG. "…Because you know, there’s always the bribe-giver and the bribe-taker. So, paano nakuha ni Delfin Lee 'yung [pera] without bribing somebody? Ang laki niyan," he said. Osmeña, who headed a series of Senate hearings on the loan mess, likewise said they have yet to complete their committee report on the matter. "Wala pa. We’re trying to draft a bill to cover whatever loopholes there are. But I am waiting for Pag-IBIG to teach me so that I will not pass a bill that is hilaw pa," he said. — VS, GMA News