[ Manila Bulletin Online ] May 26, 2008
By BEN R. ROSARIO
House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles yesterday ordered a congressional investigation on the alleged massive foreclosure of real estate mortgages that threatens to render homeless some 52,000 families living in low-cost housing units.
Nograles directed the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development to look into the activities of the Balikatan Housing Financial Inc. which has reportedly entered into a joint venture with the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC) "to manage nonperforming residential mortgage loans."
According to Nograles, the joint venture has "turned into a disaster" because it is pressing hard to foreclose the 52,000 socialized housing units that it acquired from government housing agencies at "super discounted prices."
He said the foreclosed units are resold by Balikatan at "super high prices" to the original beneficiaries.
"This is a total reverse of government housing policy. We should instead restructure and condone penalties and surcharges and not remove the roof above their heads and eject them," Nograles said.
NHMFC President Jopet Sison supported the House leader’s initiative to conduct a legislative probe on how Balikatan has been carrying out its business which is backed by the Special Purpose Assets Vehicle (SPAV) law that makes it easier for government to recover billions of pesos it loaned to beneficiaries of various housing programs.
Sison said about five percent of the 52,000 properties Balikatan manages have already been foreclosed because of the failure of borrowers to pay amortization.
Nograles said that it is quite ironic that the BHFI, an Asian Development Bank-funded holding company set up and owned by the NHMFC and international real estate investment firm DB Real Estate Global Opportunities IB, LP (DBGO), would be foreclosing the socialized housing mortgages while its mandate is to infuse muchneeded liquidity to the country’s low-income housing sector.
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