MANILA, Philippines - (Editor's note: After suing the borrowers' officers Pagibig's loan of P6.65 B may not be paid any more if they get a long prison term as noted by the author.) After the Senate probers' threat/warning to detain all persons, parties, witnesses giving misleading or false statements Pagibig finally filed a case of syndicated estafa against the officers of a company that was given a loan of P6.65 B. The agency calls it a kind of economic sabotage and a non-bailable offense. All about fraud The complaint states that in securing fund for the Xevera projects in Pampanga, "they connived and played a grand fraudulent scheme to deceive HDMF (Home Development Mutual Fund or Pagibig) into releasing a loan of P6.65 B. Xevera is the respondents' pilot project that "benefitted" from the loan. (It sounds like Xaviera, the famous or notorious Hollywood madame who kept a long list of "prominent clients or customers.") Ghost borrowers The company reportedly used ghost borrowers, submitted falsified documents and advanced or paid the various fees of fictitious members. But there's no hint in the complaint that Pagibig insiders, officials, and employees extended an invisible hand to commit even a small sin of "insider trading" to benefit the borrowers after a long relationship. Findings after the fact It takes time, maybe years, to complete the release of P6.65 B. Special audit of Xevera projects disclosed: 1) an alarming 83.38 percent of the so-called acquired units remained unoccupied, 2) 7.69 percent of the units were closed, and 3) third parties occupied 6.15 percent. The above project or model community is a perfect description of a ghost town funded by countless Pagibig members all over PHL. My small loan Years ago, I filed a housing loan with GSIS for my house in San Juan. Two sets of GSIS examiners viewed the lot and its vicinity to find out if it's really mine as stated in the TCT (transfer certificate of title commonly known as Titulo Torrens).
After the first release Within a month of inspection, I received "a first release" all of which I surrendered to my contractor. I was informed the second and final releases would be easy if: 1) my contractor built the project to fit the plan submitted to GSIS, and 2) after the horde of inspectors/architects have endorsed the project as intended in my loan application. Foreign aid from home In the meantime, I appealed for a loan from my kinfolk telling them my contractor hinted that they would finish another project first, if I incurred delay. In nine years I completed payments to the GSIS and got back my Titulo Torrens (named after an Australian who gave us a "fool-proof" model of land title.) Proper questions Some questions for Pagibig officials: 1) Did you ever try to find out if the borrowers had triple AAA credit rating, dependability, and trustworthiness to deserve a huge loan of R6.65 B, big enough even for the Asian Development Bank? 2) Did Pagibig deploy an army of architects, engineers, processors, inspectors, or even kibitzers to hound the borrowers into compliance? With true names? 3) Borrowers have true names and addresses if thoroughly inquired into which Pagibig failed to do. 4) Did Pagibig rely on the honor of the invisible borrowers hook, line, and sinker, as they say? 5) Have Pagibig officials/employees ever seen the Xevera model community to ask a few questions if they are comfortable, etc., to complete the picture of having carefully guarded the members' P6.65 B entrusted to a developer? My suffering My GSIS housing loan was less than P50,000 and before my house was completed (less furniture, etc.), I was on the point of suffering a severe nervous breakdown trying to answer endless questions from an army of GSIS bureaucrats, most of them senseless. Support all the way The filing of a complaint with DoJ does not stop the Senate from holding an open and no-nonsense investigation and also to find out if so huge a loan has no support, no matter how small and petty, from "inside traders" at Pagibig. Mauro Somodio writes from Brisbane He writes: "I appreciate your article as recommended reading for politicians. I hope Panay Island can get support for a model irrigation system called Jalaur Irrigation." (Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com)
