The Commission on Audit is questioning the preference of the Home Development Mutual Fund, or Pag-Ibig Fund, to lease rather than own its office space after the audit agency found that the Fund spent a total of P1.649 billion in rent over 30 years.
MANILA, Philippines–The government agency that pools monthly contributions from millions of its members to help them buy homes has no office building it can call its own.
The Commission on Audit (COA) is questioning the preference of the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), or Pag-Ibig Fund, to lease rather than own its office space after the audit agency found that the Fund spent a total of P1.649 billion in rent over 30 years.
“This amount could have been utilized by HDMF to purchase a lot and construct its own building had a concrete and comprehensive plan been developed,” the COA said in its annual audit report on the Fund for 2013 that was released last week.
“From the time the CHQ (central headquarters) operations started in 1980 up to Dec. 31, 2013, it has been 33 years that HDMF has been paying rentals,” it added.
Pag-Ibig Fund CEO Darlene Marie B. Berberabe said HDMF was “making steps” to address the COA’s findings.
“For the past leaderships, that was their business decision (to rent space). For the current leadership, which started in November 2010, we have in fact obtained board approval to buy our own lot and construct our own building,” Berberabe said.
“So, our current direction is aligned with the COA comment. And we are now taking steps toward that.”
Based on the COA report, the HDMF pays rent for two main offices and 35 branch offices nationwide.
2 headquarters
The HDMF has its headquarters in the JELP building on Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong City, with P79.99 million in rentals paid in 2013 alone. The building is owned by the family of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.
Its other headquarters are at Petron Megaplaza on Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City. As of 2012, HDMF had paid a total of P66 million in rent since it started holding office at Petron Megaplaza.
Until 2010, the HDMF was holding office at The Atrium on Makati Avenue in Makati City.
Atrium’s soundness
Berberabe last week told the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee looking into alleged irregularities in the HDMF that the Fund had moved out of The Atrium because of questions about the building’s structural soundness.
The COA said HDMF’s preference to lease rather than own its office space had become more questionable in view of the property donations it had received over the years:
— In the early 1990s, it was allocated a 3,001-square-meter lot at the Regional Government Center in Barangay (village) Maimpis, City of San Fernando, Pampanga, where it could have erected its own building;
— In June 2002, it received a donation of a 2,641.24-square meter lot at the Regional Government Center in Barrio Carig, Tuguegarao City, for the construction of a building;
National Artist
— In June 2003, HDMF-Naga acquired a commercial building that was designed by National Artist for Architecture Leandro V. Locsin. The two-story concrete structure with a 680-sqm floor area stands on a 2,000-sqm lot on National Road in Barangay Concepcion Pequeña, Naga City.
“The HDMF failed to utilize the two lots (Pampanga and Tuguegarao City) given as donations to construct its own buildings or to utilize them for other purposes in connection with its operations.”
The audit agency noted that the HDMF could have saved P18.9 million in lease expenses had it made full use of its properties.
It was the same story with the Naga property, which has remained idle even as the HDMF had transferred its office three times in the area. The Fund could have saved P49.740 million in lease payments from its Naga operations.
The COA recommended the HDMF use the properties as sites for its own buildings or for lease as parking or storage areas. If not, the HDMF could dispose of the properties.
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