MANILA, Philippines—The state-run Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund) is to file charges against Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. for the land developer's alleged fraudulent use of the agency's housing loans.
This was disclosed to the Inquirer on Saturday by Joey Salgado, spokesman and media officer of Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, or HUDCC, which groups seven housing-related agencies, including the Pag-Ibig Fund.
According to Salgado, Binay "ordered a probe during his first week as HUDCC chair (sometime in mid-July)."
"The probe has been completed. Charges will be filed against Globe Asiatique," he said.
At the same time, he noted Binay "received information similar to what was reported by the Inquirer" on the loan mess involving Globe Asiatique.
Salgado, however, did not provide details about the charges Pag-Ibig Fund will file against the controversial real estate firm.
"Details will be released at the proper time," he said.
In a two-part series published early this week, Inquirer Central Luzon correspondent Tonette Orejas reported that Globe Asiatique had taken out nearly P7 billion in housing loans on behalf of nearly 9,000 borrowers in Xevera Bacolor and Xevera Mabalacat, two of the firm's housing projects in Pampanga.
But hundreds of the loan accounts allegedly turned out to be spurious with an undisclosed number of borrowers not even aware they had applied for and been granted Pag-Ibig loans.
In the Xevera projects, Pag-Ibig Fund documents showed that Globe Asiatique paid a number of people and made them sign members' forms and notarized affidavits of income.
The company also recruited people ineligible to become Pag-Ibig members and took out the loan proceeds although housing units were not completed and had material deficiencies.
Delfin Lee, president of Globe Asiatique, has denied the allegations.
Lee said his firm "has no ghost housing projects (and) does not owe Pag-Ibig Fund a single centavo, and is the one which stands to lose money and not the government if the allegation that there are phony borrowers is true."
In a fact sheet furnished the the Inquirer, Lee claimed his company "has an unblemished record with Pag-Ibig Fund."
On the alleged ghost Pag-Ibig borrowers, he said, "it is not Globe Asiatique which approve(d) them, but merely processe(d) loan applications which (were) then forwarded to the proper government agency."
"The reported dubious accounts have been settled long before the adverse publicity, but (are) being sensationalized by media to destroy the company's IPO and to wreck its cash flow," Lee said.
He also claimed "it was Globe Asiatique, not Pag-Ibig, which discovered and reported the dubious accounts, not the other way around."
Early this week, Emma Linda Faria, a Pag-Ibig Fund official, told a radio dzMM interview the agency had been a "victim of fraud."
'We discovered 400 accounts involving Globe Asiatique borrowers who do not have the capacity to pay their loans," said Faria.
According to Faria, Pag-Ibig Fund discovered the irregularities "before the May elections."
At the House of Representatives, at least three resolutions have been filed, seeking an inquiry into the housing loan mess.
The resolutions were filed sponsored by Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II of Mandaluyong City, Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. and Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr.
Globe Asiatique also has housing projects in Cavite and Mandaluyong City.
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