HGC allots 3,000 homes for typhoon victims

MANILA, Philippines – State-run Home Guaranty Corp. (HGC) is allotting at least 3,000 residential units, mostly sequestered assets, for victims of the two typhoons that recently battered the country.

HGC president Gonzalo Bongolan said the units, mostly in the Montalban area, will be offered for a minimum rental fee and through deferred payments.

Bongolan said the agency would soon be finalizing a mechanism for the program, which would be implemented in coordination with the local government.

HGC is also offering assistance similar to the moratorium offered by Pag-IBIG Fund which could be in the form of deferred payments for victims who have outstanding financial obligations to HGC.

Financial obligations to the HGC are usually in the form of unpaid guarantee fees and amortization for housing units owned by the agency.

“We’ll try to make (these measures) available until they get back on their feet,” said Bongolan.

He stressed that these programs would still need board approvals and that the mechanisms are still being finalized.

HGC is seeking the approval of the Department of Finance (DOF) to sell P5.5 billion in 10-years bonds in the fourth quarter of the year to cover the agency’s P3.5 billion unpaid obligations to the Social Security System (SSS) while the rest would be used for its operations.

HGC is a government-owned and controlled corporation mandated by law to extend guarantee cover to all bond issuances of other state-run firms.

The last time the HGC operated with no unpaid guarantees was in the middle 90s before the Asian financial crisis hit the country.

Nonetheless, Bongolan said that from a P16 billion total obligations in 2001, the agency was able to trim it to just P3.5 billion.

If this pushes through, this would be HGC’s fourth  bond sale since 2002 where it floated P7 billion worth of debt papers.

In 2004 and 2006, the HGC sold P3 billion and P12 billion worth of bonds, respectively. –Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star)