‘Ghost’ buyers appear in housing scam probe

By: Maila Ager - 11 years ago

Complainants on the PAG-IBIG-Globe Asiatique housing projects at the Senate committee hearing on Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement. INQUIRER PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

MANILA, Philippines— “Ako po ay isa sa mga ghost buyers (I’m one of the ghost buyers).”

This was how 46 year-old Josephine Cedo introduced herself when she faced the Senate committee on urban, planning, housing and resettlement hearing on Tuesday on the housing loan scam involving Globe Asiatique (GA) Realty Holdings Corp.

In exchange of P1,500, Cedo she said agreed to fill up a housing loan application offered to her by people from the GA, who she said promised her that she could own the house located at Xevera Bacolor in Pampanga if she could pay the monthly mortgage.

But she said she was not a member of the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) or Pag-IBIG Fund nor her husband, who is just a contractual employee.

“May bayad na P1,500 kaya go-mo ako (There was a P1,500 payment so I said okay),” Cedo said.

But the truth is, Cedo said she could not pay the monthly the mortgage .

“Talagang di ko po kayang mag-avail ng monthly (mortgage). Siyempre nangailangan ako, P1,500 so go pirma lang (I really can’t avail the monthly mortgage. Of course I needed money, that’s P1, 500 so I signed it),” she said.

In 2010, however, Cedo said she received a letter from Pag-IBIG fund informing her that the real estate firm was no longer authorized to collect the amortization payments and that she should pay directly to any Pag-IBIG branch or office.

“Bakit ako magbabayad e hindi naman ako nag loan? (Why will I pay, I did not apply for a loan?)

Asked if she have already seen the unit, Cedo said: “Hindi po. Hindi ko pa po nakita ‘yon. Sa picture lang po. (No. I haven’t seen it. Only in pictures)”

Like Cedo, 40-year-old Juliet Paguibulan, a caretaker in a school in Olongapo City, also agreed to fill up a housing loan in exchange of P1,500.

Paguibulan said she was approached by two males who claimed to be from the GA and offered her to fill-up the form in exchange of the said amount. She was also told that she could own the house if she would pay the monthly amortization.

The P1,500 pay, she said, was for “food and allowance” since she had to go to Xevera Mabalacat in Pampanga.

Asked if she had any plan at all to apply for a housing loan, Paguibulan answered in the negative.

In fact, she said she was just surprised that the media came and interviewed her and told her that she had a house with a title under her name but had been sold to another buyer.

“Sabi ko nga po, paano ako magkakaroon ng house and lot, may title wala akong pinanghahawakan. Ni ID ng Pag-IBIG, wala po,” she said.

Forty-four-year-old Evelyn Niebres, who lives in Xevera Mabalacat, had a different story.

“Andito po ako sa harap nyo bilang biktma nga GA…(I’m in front of you as a victim of the GA),” she told the committee.

She said she paid n P1.537 million cash for two units only to find out later that the properties had been mortgaged to another person.

“Ilang buwan na nag-aalala ako. Hindi ako makatulog, nag iisip, hindi makakain ng maayos. Inaalala na baka biglang may dumating sa bahay namin at bigla kaming paalisin o ilitin iyong bahay ko,” Niebres said.

When she bought the properties from the GA, she said she was only given an OR (official receipt) and a certification that she was the owner. But the developer, she said, the title of the units will be given to her within three to six months.

“Umabot isang taon wala po silang na i-provide sa akin,” she said. It was then that she decided to file against the GA.

The case of Mary Anne Nocum was also a different case.

She has been living for almost a year in a house she brought from the GA in San Mateo Rizal when she received a letter from Pag-IBIG addressed to a different person.

“Nag abroad ako dati, ito na lang yung huling ipon ko. Isinugal ko po na makabili ng bahay dito. Actually wala pong nakakaalam na bumili ako ng bahay dito. Gusto ko silang isorpresa, ang ending ako po iyong nasorpresa…” Nocum said.

She said she also knew of some people, who bought a house from the GA but later found out that it was still being sold to another person or another person was claiming it.