LOANS

By EDMER F. PANESA;House Speaker Prospero C. Nograles has felt relieved for some 50, 000 borrowers who have been delinquent in paying their housing loans with Balikatan Housing Finance Inc. after the company declared it is still open to negotiations and that foreclosure would be considered only as a last resort.
"This is good news. At least now, we have 50, 000 families who have been relieved from the constant threat of being ejected from their homes," Nograles said.
Nograles issued the statement following the assurance made by Federico Cadiz, president of Bahay Financial Services Inc. (BFS), to the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia.
BFS is an asset management and loan company engaged by Balikatan, a special purpose company jointly owned by the government’s National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC) and DB Real Estate Global Opportunities, to implement its mortgage servicing activities.
Based on House Resolution (HR) 604 filed by Nograles, the Valencia panel is conducting an investigation on the massive foreclosure of low-cost and socialized real estate mortgages sold by NHMFC to Balikatan, which threatened to throw out thousand of families from their homes.
Valencia said the Balikatan would first put priority on negotiations with the borrowers on workable solutions to settle their accounts.
"The BHFI assured the committee it will take into consideration all possible options so the borrowers would be able to amortize their restructured loans," Valencia said.
Nograles, author of Republic Act (RA) 8501 or the Housing Loan Condonation Act of 1998, has been pushing hard for a moratorium on all foreclosures of delinquent low-cost and socialized housing loans as most Filipinos are in dire financial situation due to the spiraling cost of goods and services worldwide.
"We have to be more compassionate especially at this time when most people can hardly afford to three square meals a day. We should not remove the roofs on their heads," Nograles said.
Nograles maintained that foreclosures of lowcost and socialized housing units will only push thousands of Filipino families back to the slums, thereby aggravating the country’s problem on the growing number of informal settlers particularly in urban areas.
During the initial hearing conducted by Valencia’s committee, the Alliance of Homeowners (AHomes) told lawmakers that the transfer of loan accounts from NHMFC to the BHFI was made without prior consultation from its members.
A-Homes also said that its members could not afford the high down payment and that their respective properties are now facing foreclosure proceedings.
Another homeowners group, Kapitbahayan, appealed that those affected should be allowed to restructure their loans and be given a lower interest rate on their loans. It also recommended the option for NHMFC to buy back the accounts.
The NHMFC clarified before the House panel that part of its disposition strategy for its non-performing loans under the Unified Home-Lending Program portfolio was to dispose of accounts classified as highly delinquent to be able to pay its financiers — the Social Security System (SSS), the Pag-IBIG Fund, and the Government Service Insurance System — which extended loans amounting to R42 billion.
It added that from 1988 to 2003, NHMFC paid its financiers some R40.4 billion but still had a balance of R53.2 billion, including interests.
Likewise, it entered into a joint venture with DB Global Opportunities (not Deutsche Bank as earlier reported) and formed the Balikatan to which it sold 52,000 accounts, translating to about R32 billion.
The projected collectibles from its 44 percent share in Balikatan would amount to R3.88 billion, the NHMFC added.
Earlier, Nograles, Parañaque City Rep. Eduardo Zialcita, and Muntinlupa City Rep. Ruffy Biazon separately filed House Bill (HB) Nos. 89, 411, and 1932, all seeking relief for borrowers with delinquent housing accounts.
All three bills seek to institute a re-structuring program for delinquent housing accounts with housing agencies and government financing institutions.
The three authors pushed for the restructuring and the condonation of all penalties and surcharges of delinquent housing loans.
They also sought to condone a reasonable portion of the accrued interests, make the remaining accrued interests a non-interest bearing principal, and impose a low six percent interest on the original principal