Globe Asiatique hits back at Pag-Ibig

Realty firm Globe Asiatique, which allegedly obtained some P6.65-billion worth of housing loans from the government through “ghost borrowers,” on Monday insisted that the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), popularly known as Pag-Ibig Fund, had violated their agreement on “replacement buyers.”

Citing a decision of a Makati City Regional Trial Court, Globe Asiatique Realty said it was entitled to “specific performance and damages” after Pag-Ibig Fund refused to honor their memorandum of agreement and funding commitment agreements (FCAs).

In a press statement, Globe Asiatique said the agreements allowed it to sell properties to other buyers if the original buyers failed to pay their amortization on time as stipulated in the contracts.

“The right to replace defaulting buyers is included in the five-year buy-back guarantee of Globe Asiatique inserted by Pag-Ibig in the contracts that it solely prepared,” the statement said.

It said the arrangement was an alternative to the authority given to Globe Asiatique to settle the unpaid loans of its delinquent clients to Pag-Ibig Fund, to “cause the automatic off-setting of the unpaid buyer’s loan with the retention, escrow and other receivables of Globe Asiatique, which are still in the possession” of Pag-Ibig.

Globe Asiatique said the Makati RTC’s Jan. 30 resolution dismissed the allegation of Pag-Ibig Fund that it had violated the provisions of the FCAs when the realty firm approved the loan applications with Pag-Ibig Fund of bogus borrowers.

“[Pag-Ibig Fund] should not be allowed to escape liability with impunity by simply alleging that the defaulting buyers-borrowers are fictitious and spurious because in the first place [it], based on admitted and undisputed evidence… approved all the Pag-Ibig Fund membership and loan applications,” the Makati RTC said in its ruling. Marlon Ramos