Property firm swamped gov’t agency with ‘fake’ documents, says former official

MANILA, Philippines — The head of Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings (GA) “flooded” the Home Mutual Development Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund) with loan folders containing fake documents to acquire over P6 billion in housing loans, a former Pag-Ibig Fund official said.

During Monday’s clarificatory hearing to determine the possible criminal liability of Delfin Lee and other GA officials, Pag-Ibig Fund’s former officer-in-charge Emma Faria told the Department of Justice that Lee took advantage of the lack of manpower of Pag-Ibig Fund office in Pampanga.

“They knew that Pag-Ibig only had seven days to process and release the check (for the loan),” she said.

Lee and other officials of GA are facing at least three syndicated estafa complaints for using fictitious buyers to take out more than P6-billion housing loans from Pag-Ibig.

The first complaint was filed in October with Pag-Ibig as co-complainant, while a second and third one were filed December and last week respectively based on complaints by homeowners and buyers in GA's Xevera Homes in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

Faria said a post-validation by Pag-Ibig Pampanga branch showed that Globe Asiatique used fake buyers and fraudulent documents to secure the Pag-Ibig loans.

"Pag-Ibig relied on the guarantees of GA that the members they approved for loans were qualified members and that the documents were authentic," she said.

She 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.

“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,” she told DoJ prosecutors.

The estafa complaint 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 more borrowers who could not be found anymore.

Meanwhile, Lee denied the allegations, saying that the transactions were aboveboard.

He added that "the whole thing has been blown out of proportion." (report from Tetch Torres, Inquirer.net)