Wednesday, April 30, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
The Bank of Commerce branch in Davao faces complaints from property owners who claim the bank sold their piece of real estate to another buyer.
As it developed, spouses Emmanuel and Linda Susan Antepuesto bought from the bank a 115-square-meter property for P920,000 in January 2005, which they found out was also sold to one Atty. Isagani Sembrano for P720,000 in August 2005.
In an interview with reporters, Antepuesto said she filed a complaint before the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in April last year against BOC Davao branch.
Antepuesto said “the offense committee is grave enough for BSP to exact the necessary sanctions on BOC, but the BSP is even more powerless to divulge the results of its investigation.”
BSP could not comment on the case as it is not allowed to divulge the findings, recommendation and sanctions that will arise from the investigation under the Central Bank Act.
To address this problem, Antepuesto is pushing to file the case with the Regional Trial Court of Makati, which is the only court covered under the couples’ contract with BOC.
“Only the court can ask to disclose the result of the investigation. Our only last resort is to file this to the court,” she told reporters.
Antepuesto said she has asked BOC to return her total installment payments of P400,876, but BOC offered to pay only P210,346, half of the amount.
“The bank grossly violated the law when it issued notarized contracts for sale involving one property and received payments of the two buyers during the period of August 2005 to March 2007. These are serious offenses that remedial measures and corresponding sanctions should be exacted to the BOC,” she said.
Maximo Estrada, first vice president of BOC’s property management group, could not explain in clear terms how the double sale of property occurred as he was hired only in July last year, but said, “The bank says that it was a clerical error.”
The conditional deed of sale was signed by Ricardo Dizon, BOC’s head of credit management sector, and Michelle Tuazon, head of BOC’s property management group. Tuazon had resigned.
As interest rates are low, more Filipinos are purchasing housing loans offered by banks, but the loan rates are still higher compared with BSP’s overnight borrowing rate of 5 percent.
The Antepuesto property loan, which is to be paid in installment for 10 years, has a monthly interest rate of 10.6 percent and additional 3 percent for delayed payment
The couple warned property buyers about investing their hard-earned money. Before BOC, she was also a victim of College Assurance Plan (CAP) pre-need educational plan.--Maricel E. Burgonio
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