MANILA, Philippines—The government Home Mutual Development Fund, or Pag-IBIG Fund, released an additional P186.99 million to Globe Asiatique in 2010 even as the property developer was being investigated by Congress for alleged irregularities involving housing loans. The releases were disclosed by Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Abante Mindanao party-list Rep. Maximo Rodriguez Jr. who sought an investigation through House Resolution No. 741.
The resolution states the money was released despite an order by Vice President Jejomar Binay, chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), to blacklist and investigate Globe Asiatique.
It said new documents showed that Globe Asiatique took out P43.278 million for 65 accounts in June, P127.141 million for 218 accounts in July and P16.577 million for 23 accounts in August.
According to the resolution, the releases happened even though Globe Asiatique had stopped collecting payments from buyers on Aug. 19, telling them instead to make their payments to Pag-IBIG or the Land Bank of the Philippines.
The resolution said Pag-IBIG signed a second memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Globe Asiatique, which maintained the same easy terms and released more housing loans despite adverse findings by the agency's Pampanga office.
The MOA was signed even though Bayani Garcia, Pag-IBIG Pampanga branch manager, had notified Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee about spurious borrowers in several letters in March 2009, copies of which were sent to lawyer Vilma Flores, Pag-IBIG vice president for north Luzon operations, and Tessie Gonzales, deputy chief executive officer for regional operations cluster.
“Loan takeouts continued to be released despite Garcia's letters to Sergio Andal Jr., who replaced Gonzales, and to Flores advising about the need to conduct a pre-inspection of houses being built by Globe Asiatique in its Xevera and Sameera projects," the resolution stated.
Globe Asiatique, one of the country's biggest home builders, has been under investigation by the House of Representatives, the Senate and Pag-IBIG for alleged irregularities in its housing projects in Pampanga.
Lee has maintained that his firm did not commit any wrongdoing.
Investigation showed that from May 2008 to May 2010, Globe Asiatique delivered 8,973 accounts for P6.552 billion worth of loans, mostly for P750,000 each.
The loan takeouts for Xevera Bacolor and Xevera Mabalacat under Pag-IBIG's Other Working Groups (OWG) program then averaged P400 million monthly.
Nearly 2,000 accounts originated from spurious buyers who were allegedly paid to sign notarized loan documents.
Cynthia Balana, Phil. Daily Inquirer
