[ manilastandardtoday.com ] December 14, 2010
THE Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies has not cleared anyone from the multi-billion housing loan fraud involving developer Globe Asiatique and the state housing fund, Senator Sergio Osmeña said Monday.
“We never cleared Globe Asiatique or any of its officers,” Osmeña said.
“They are being charged with syndicated estafa by the Pag-IBIG [Fund]. The evidence of fraud is overwhelming.”
Osmeña said the PagIbig Fund’s records showed that Globe Asiatique submitted names of fictitious borrowers to avail itself of billions of pesos in housing loans from the fund.
Globe Asiatique said it had a buy-back guarantee through which it would buy back a loan if the borrower defaulted within five years, and that constituted protection for the fund.
But banking sources said it actually helped the developer dispose of its housing units faster as it only needed to make sure that the loan was paid during the guarantee period.
When the guarantee expired, Pag-Ibig would be left with bad loans because the developer no longer had the incentive to keep the account current as the borrowers were fictitious to begin with.
Osmeña said Globe Asiatique’s bad loans had already reached P4 billion. Eileen A. Mencias
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