Pag-Ibig execs liable for P33-M loan scam

The Commission on Audit has declared 13 officials of the Home Development Mutual Fund’s (Pag-Ibig) Eastern Visayas office and a Southern Leyte village developer liable for P33.189 million in fraudulent loans from 2007 to 2009.

In a six-page decision, the COA directed its Prosecution and Litigation Office to forward the case to the Office of the Ombudsman for the investigation and possible indictment of the regional officials led by retired department manager Flordelis Menzon, as well as developer Ray Zialcita.

The recently released Dec. 27 decision also upheld the 46 notices of disallowance ordering the Pag-Ibig officials to return the money that was loaned to individuals who were either dummies or nonborrowers.

The COA faulted both Zialcita for approving and filing the loan applications, and the Pag-Ibig officials for failing to conduct post-takeout inspection of the loans.

“The appellants should be held liable for failure to exercise the required diligence in the performance of their duties,” the decision read.

Records showed that the irregularities arose from an undated Funding Commitment Agreement, which allowed Zialcita, the developer of Villa Perla Subdivision in Maasin City, to avail of Pag-ibig’s Takeout Window.

Under the scheme, the village developer receives, evaluates, preprocesses and approves the housing loan applications. Zialcita filed 79 housing loan applications under the scheme, ranging from P300,000 to P900,000 each, from December 2007 to January 2009.

The controversy surfaced after some of the purported borrowers complained.