Mandaluyong solon seeks probe of questionable Pag-ibig loans

HOUSE Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II is seeking an investigation into the reported large-scale fraudulent use of Home Development Mutual (Pag-ibig) Funds to finance bogus housing loans and questionable housing development projects.

On Monday Gonzales filed House Resolution 316 directing the House Committee on Good Government to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation on the alleged anomaly which, he said, was perpetrated through the unscrupulous partnership of Pag-ibig Fund officials and certain housing developers to the prejudice of the interests of members nationwide.

Gonzales said based on investigations conducted by concerned Pag-ibig Fund officials, in Pampanga alone, hundreds of loan accounts involving hundreds of millions of pesos were found to be spurious and fictitious with listed borrowers not even knowing that they have applied for and been granted housing loans.

“Direct accounts of alleged fictitious and bogus borrowers are to the effect that people went to them to secure their signatures on certain documents in exchange for specific amounts of money, but they did not know nor were they informed that the documents they signed were to be utilized to secure Pag-ibig housing loans,” the resolution said.

It said records also indicate that at least P6.6 billion in housing-loan proceeds were taken out by Globe Asiatique  Realty Holdings Corp. for buyers in its housing project in Pampanga, but that hundreds of these buyers are fake Pag-ibig members or ineligible for membership, while still hundreds of others were found to have been used for spurious loan accounts where alleged borrowers deny having applied for or secured loans or were dead at the time the loans were applied for or not living in the address given.

The resolution said the corporation took out billions of loan proceeds even as housing units were not yet completed or unfinished, with thousands of completed units below standard, unoccupied or closed.

“Pag-ibig Fund internal audit show that many loan documentation were incomplete and deficient, lacking even the membership status verification slip [MSVS] that determines borrowers’ eligibility for a housing loan and loan processing was irresponsibly fast-tracked or facilitated as processors turned a blind eye to loan documentation deficiencies to approve loans in one to three days only, a suspicious indication of an unholy cooperation with the concerned developer that made possible the dissipation of Pag-ibig funds to the detriment of the interests of members,” it said.

Accordingly, there were also reports that loan rules and regulations were suspiciously relaxed to favor certain developers and abet their irresponsible access to the utilization of funds to finance unscrupulous housing enterprises.

“Pag-ibig funds belong to the members thereof and are in the nature of fiduciary funds which should not be used or dissipated to finance questionable housing enterprises that do not redound to the benefit of the members,” the resolution said.

“The irresponsible large-scale use of Pag-ibig funds for unlawful housing activities may lead to a financial crisis affecting the overall state of the national economy,” it added. –Fernan Marasigan / Reporter, Businessmirror