The recently concluded 2024 APIC Summit in Hong Kong attended by Governor Gwen Garcia yielded some good news for at least 10,000 Cebu City households occupying Capitol-owned lots, such as 93-1 and those in the Old Philippine Railway Residents Association (OPRRA) and Kalunasan.
Atty. Robert John Cosico, deputy chief executive officer of Home Development Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund, promised the Governor that he will assist the Provincial Government in addressing the challenges faced by the occupants who are applying for loan with the agency in order to finally pay the Capitol for the land where they had built their homes.
Gov. Garcia and Atty. Cosico were both invited speakers at the 2024 APIC World Pension, Social Security, and Sovereign Wealth Funds Summit held on November 13-14 in Hong Kong. It was attended by over hundreds of senior policy leaders, CEOs, and investment professionals from various countries, with high-level discussions on the role of institutional investors in addressing critical global challenges.
“I explained to him sa atong predicament, and he said, ‘Don’t worry, we will fix that.’ Mao tong nilamano ko niya, and in fact pagbarog, when he talked about it, I stood up, we shook hands that cemented this commitment,” the Governor told 𝗦𝘂𝗴𝗯𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀.
PAG-IBIG LOAN APPLICATIONS
The Capitol, under Gov. Garcia, is aggressively pushing for the loan application of the occupants of Capitol-owned properties in Cebu City with Pag-Ibig Fund.
Simply put, the loan applications will enable Pag-Ibig Fund to pay the Capitol the “just compensation” at fair market value of its properties occupied by Cebu City residents.
In turn, these residents will repay Pag-Ibig which is offering more affordable and liberal paying terms of housing loans for up to 30 years, thereby making their obligations more bearable.
However, the process has faced challenges as Pag-Ibig requires that the Capitol sign a deed of sale before funds are released to the loan applicants.
Governor Garcia objected and asked how can the Capitol sign such deed of sale if funds for the purchase of lots have not yet been released?
Governor Garcia told Atty. Cosico that despite repeated attempts to meet with the vice president of Pag-IBIG who oversees the loan process, her requests for policy adjustment have been continually turned down so far.
“We have been trying to set up a meeting with the vice president of Pag-IBIG, who is in charge of the Pag-IBIG Loans, but he has constantly turned us down for months because we’ve been requesting a small policy adjustment, specifically for the beneficiaries of the Cebu Provincial Government, such as those in 93-1, OPRRA, and Kalunasan,” Gov. Gwen said.
With the express commitment of Atty. Cosico to the Governor that the agency will seriously look into the matter and come to the aid of the Cebuanos, hope is still so much alive that the Capitol-owned lots that thousands of Cebuano households are occupying will one day be theirs, giving them a sense of security in their homes.
The 93-1 properties, located across 51 hectares of land in 11 Cebu City barangays, were made available for purchase to the occupants through Provincial Ordinance No. 93-1 passed in 1993. | Jude Torres