Binay: Globe Asiatique victims getting threats

MANILA, Philippines - Homeowners who sued developer Globe Asiatique (GA) for syndicated estafa are being threatened and harassed by unidentified individuals, Vice President Jejomar Binay said yesterday.

Binay, who chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), made the announcement after personally receiving the victims’ complaints yesterday during a dialogue at the Pag-IBIG Fund’s corporate headquarters in Makati Avenue, Makati City.

“Stop the threats. We will charge you once we catch you,” he said.

Binay said he will ask assistance from the municipality of Mabalacat, Pampanga to ensure the safety of the homeowners of Xevera Homes.

“The problem here is you have been swindled. As if it is not enough, they are also threatening you. Don’t be afraid. I pity all of you. We will act on the threats,” he said.

Binay ordered the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board to go to the Xevera Homes in Mabalacat, Pampanga and create a management committee to address the security concerns of the victims.

GA owner Delfin Lee, in an interview aired over ANC yesterday, denied sending people to threaten and case the houses of the complainants.

“I don’t even know them. Why would I do that? How can I threaten all of them?” he said.

Earlier this month, Pag-IBIG president and chief executive officer Darlene Marie Berberabe reported to Binay that clarificatory hearings conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) found that GA allegedly used a “modified Ponzi” scheme to allegedly siphon off money amounting to P6.6 billion from the agency to develop its Xevera projects in Pampanga.

Lee, along with some officials of Globe Asiatique and a lawyer of Pag-IBIG, were charged with three counts of syndicated estafa constituting economic sabotage, a non-bailable offense.

Berberabe alleged that GA used fake borrowers to take out loans from Pag-IBIG and engaged in multiple selling of homes.

‘No intent to defraud’

Lee said in the ANC interview that they had “no intention to defraud anybody” and that all developers encounter clients who back out of paying for housing units, which then have to be resold. He said he did not know they were fake borrowers.

Homeowner Bernie Bautista urged Binay to help them. He said he bought his Xevera Homes house for P1.5 million in September 2009, but he is still waiting for the title to the property. “We learned that the house and lot that we bought were also taken out to other buyers,” he said. “We don’t owe (GA) a single centavo.”

Another homeowner, Ernesto Santos, said they are afraid Pag-IBIG will evict them from their houses. “Some of us have deeds of sale and receipts of payments,” he said.

Fatima Calunusan said she is an in-house buyer of a Xevera Homes unit, and her loan was approved in February 2009. She found two other buyers took out loans on her house the same year.

Calunusan said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has already called on the “ghost buyer,” who claimed they were paid P900 to P1,000 to pose as one. Other ghost buyers did not know their names were being used by GA, she said.

Calunusan said they do not know whether they should continue paying the amortization on their units and where they should pay it if they do so.

“GA said we can pay it in (a private bank). I asked, ‘Where is my loan?’ They said our loan is in Pag-IBIG. So I asked why we have to pay (the bank) when our loan is in Pag-IBIG,” she said.

Binay said Lee is likely to declare GA as bankrupt since its license was already suspended, and “given the huge amount involved in the scam. I don’t think he can pay it all.”

Lee, however, told ANC “that’s news to me. I would have done it six months ago.” He pointed out that GA never took out a loan from Pag-IBIG, but the buyers did.

Binay asked the victims to submit their documents to Pag-IBIG “to let us know what we should do and what we can do.” He alleged that most GA housing units that are not subjects of transactions with Pag-IBIG have been foreclosed by private banks.

Lee said he will answer the charges in the “proper venue” but added that he is willing to discuss the matter with Binay.