DOJ starts hearings on GA housing 'anomaly'

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has started hearing the criminal complaint against Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings (GA) and its officers in connection with its allegedly anomalous housing projects in Pampanga. At the start of clarificatory hearings, GA was accused by an official of government’s Pag-IBIG Fund (Home Development Mutual Fund) of using fraudulent documents and fake buyers in securing P6 billion worth of housing loans. Pag-IBIG Fund’s former officer-incharge

Emma Faria told the investigating panel of state prosecutors that GA, through its president Delfin Lee, flooded their office in Pampanga with loan folders.

She alleged that it was the technique used by the firm. “We have limited manpower and they know we only have seven days to process and release check payment. Our postvalidation in Pampanga branch also discovered that there were fraudulent documents and buyers submitted by GA Holdings,” Faria alleged.

“Pag-IBIG relied on the guarantees of GA that the members they approved for loans are qualified members and that the documents were authentic, “ she said. Faria explained that the collection servicing agreement (CSA), which delegates to the developer the burden of collection from members who take out housing loans, is a feature of Window-1 program. The housing fund’s lawyers said that there are more than 200 developers under Window-1 program of Pag-IBIG but only GA took advantage of its terms to commit estafa against Pag-IBIG members. The charges included a list of borrowers who said they did not know about the loan documents they were signing, borrowers whose loans were paid by GA, and a list of borrowers who could not be found anymore. Lee has again denied the allegation in an interview with reporters during the hearing’s break hearing. “I hope you have noticed that the whole thing has been blown out of proportion,” he said. Lee and other GA officers are facing three separate charges in the DOJ filed through complaints by groups of homeowners in Xevera Homes in Mabalacat, Pampanga. The first complaint was filed in October last year with Pag-IBIG as co-complainant, while the second and third ones were filed last December and last week, respectively. GA already answered the charges in its counter-affidavit filed in November last year. Lee denied allegations that they took out at least P6.6 billion in housing loan proceeds from buyers of their housing projects. “We did not commit any crime. Our track record speaks for itself. The communities that we built tell a story that is diametrically opposed to the one being depicted by the complainants,” he told the DOJ. Lee argued that their firm did not commit syndicated estafa when GA paid for the amortizations of some of the buyers unidentified in the complaint since it was provided in the funding commitment agreement (FCA) with Pag-IBIG.