93-1 occupants can start loan application with Pag-IBIG Fund

CEBU, Philippines — Occupants of Lot 93-1 can now move forward as the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) or Pag-IBIG Fund will start accepting housing loan applications for this Cebu Province-owned property.

This came after the Cebu provincial government turned over the task of processing the loan applications to the Pag-IBIG Fund.

According to the City’s Public Information Office (PIO), Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia announced the Pag-IBIG Fund will be the one to scrutinize the application as to who can avail themselves of the loan.

Once the entire process is completed, a signing of a deed of sale between Pag-IBIG Fund and the Capitol will then follow.

Based on what was agreed earlier, Pag-IBIG Fund will pay the 93-1 lots to the Provincial Government. After, the Pag-IBIG Fund will be the one to deal with the applicants on its payment terms.

"Pag-IBIG will also now deal with the applicant sa ilang loan properties; 25 years (to pay)," said Garcia.

Garcia said that the City Government has nothing to do with the Pag-Ibig Fund deal with the applicants. The City's role is only in the processing of tax declaration and subdivision approval, among others.

Garcia, along with the City’s Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor, had invited members of the homeowners' association under the 93-1 property to a meeting to update them on the latest development with Pag-IBIG Fund, following the City official's meeting and Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia last December.

The affected residents have been clamoring for a new agreement with the Capitol after the Provincial Board revoked a land swap deal between the Cebu Province and the City Government over the 93-1 lots.

In December 2016, former mayor Tomas Osmeña and then-governor and now Vice Governor Hilario Davide III signed an agreement for a land swap between the City and the Province, covering 32 hectares of Province-owned lots under Ordinance 93-1, located in several Cebu City barangays.

The lots covered in the agreement also included 1.5 hectares in the Department of Agriculture Compound on M. Velez St., Barangay Guadalupe; 2,358 square-meter on Gorordo Ave. in Barangay Lahug; and 577 square-meter on Don Gil Garcia St. in Barangay Capitol Site.

The 93-1 beneficiaries are from Barangays Kamputhaw, Capitol Site, Kalunasan, Busay, Luz, Lahug, Mabolo, Apas, Lorega San Miguel, Kasambagan, and Tejero.

The Cebu Provincial Board (PB), however, revoked the memorandum of agreement (MOA) in March of last year as well as the deeds of donation entered into by the provincial government and the city government concerning the lots under Provincial Ordinance 93-1, after citing defects on the lot donations and the failed land-swap negotiations between the two local government units as reasons for the revocation. — /JG (FREEMAN)