Miami, FL – This company set up by a certain Delfin Lee has, for a short period of time, shattered many Filipinos’ dreams built over the years. With this sterling diabolical achievement, Globe Asiatique too, has further resolved my intention not to retire, albeit partly sadly, in my native Philippines.
I have long been reluctant to make public my retirement plans, 10-15 years from now, for who cares where I would live in my sunset years anyway. Besides, the worst accusation one could face is abandoning one’s native land. But I thought of sharing my views and reasons if only to serve as a lesson for Filipino authorities because my experience certainly mirrors the horrible stories other Filipinos encountered with Globe Asiatique, ex-owner of the mutli-million, taxpayer-funded, Xevera housing project in Mabalacat and elsewhere in Pampanga.
Almost two years after my mom and sister moved to Xevera Mabalacat, they discovered from the Pag Ibig offices in San Fernando that the owners of the combined units we purchased are under different names: one unit belonged to a Nestor Doenada Bacay, the other unit to a Marvin Olivas Payumo.
I am a little blessed enough that I can just leave the place and buy a better property which I already did with our recent purchase of a single detached house at the Mirus community also in Mabalacat, Pampanga. But how about other less fortunate overseas Filipinos like a couple of friends I know who have been toiling in the Mideast for almost a decade now and spent all their savings in Xevera only to find out that the properties they purchased are not theirs?
Thank goodness I did not pursue my original plan to purchase eight units in Xevera or I would be suffering intolerable stress by now. For how can you refuse an attractive offer pitched even by then President Arroyo and her Vice President de Castro who, I was told, used to be a regular visitor in the Xevera projects at the start?
So I bit the bait, applied for an “in-housing” loan from Globe Asiatique so that the payments could be expedited. I have earlier mentioned that I really did not want to retire in the Philippines but I still chose to purchase the Xevera townhouses for my mom and my sister who would still be in the Philippines for many years before they join me here (my mom Fe would perhaps be here by yearend I hope but sister Mai would still have to wait a few more years). With the house purchase, I also plunked down thousands of dollars in setting up small businesses for my mom and sister – the usual course of action of any overseas family member – at the Xevera dry market.
The business experience entails a litany of horror stories and one column is not sufficient to tell all. Suffice it to say that the Xevera leasing department has successfully ran a confusing and rambunctious operation that they violate their own rules and that them publicizing those rules became a farce. The Xevera “lawyer”, at least the one who claims to be such, was also a joke, the most unprofessional person I had to deal with as he never answers calls, responds to emails and worst, he used to ask the dumbest questions you would not expect from supposedly a man of law.
That dry market has since been removed; its clients, including my mom and sister, evicted without formal notice because Xevera sold the damn place to the Jomafer supermarket.
Before that chaos, my mom and my sister, along with other small business owners initially allowed to conduct business near the commercial center, were unceremoniously booted out of the area, another violation, which we again just took lightly but painfully.
Despite all these horrible events, I still was excited to go to the Philippines in April 2010 to see my family and the Xevera townhouses myself. To my dismay, the house is of inferior quality, cracks can be seen on the walls, paints are starting to chip off and the second floor’s wooden floor seems ready to just crumble with the slightest earthquake. Again, I took it lightly, although painfully for what can I expect, I told myself, this is after all, the Philippines.
Then came the stench of the water. The rust (kalawang) coming from it is so bad that it has stained our kitchen sink and toilet bowls. Since the water is not potable, residents are forced to buy water from you bet, Xevera who has a drinking water franchise and refused to let competitors come in initially.
To top my frustrations and tales of woe in my April 2010 visit, Mabalacat and Angeles are now big circus towns with no order in traffic and in almost all other things. Politicians call it signs of development. I call it crazy. There is no mass transport system as of yet, no good roads despite all the publicity of the NLEX, which has confusing entry and exit points. No engineer me, but Mexico, the country, indeed has better roads. I already drove from Los Angeles to Acapulco in 2006 for days and those Mexican cuota roads are impeccable and can compete even with the aging US freeways.
This lack of facilities, suffocating surroundings, swarms of jeepneys (these vehicles should be phased out and be in museums by now), plus the Xevera experience were the last straws that broke the camel’s back so to speak so that I have finally concluded, painfully again, that the Philippines indeed will not be my retirement home.
I have scoured other places and finally found a peaceful and affordable community in Merida, Yucatan, only 4 hours west of the world-renowned Cancun paradise in Mexico. For less than 10,000 dollars (that is another pet peeve of mine, why are Philippine real estate properties freaking expensive), one can have a small beachfront land near Playa del Progreso, which is just south of New Orleans facing the Gulf of Mexico. Ferry services will soon open from Tampa and Miami in FL to Progreso. Cancun by the way is only an hour flight from Miami or Fort Lauderdale in Florida.
Merida is a nice old Spanish town mixed with the vibrancy of modern life. People are polite, food especially seafood, is inexpensive and yes, real estate properties are very affordable and realistic. There is a good mass transit system too: buses and taxicabs are fantastic, even the most fancy Philippine Rabbit or Victory Liner buses (and there are none) would pale in comparison. The Mexican ADO (pronounced Ah-De-Oh) buses as they are called, have pantries in the rear for coffee and have bigger seats equipped with video screens,
No, Merida is far from the drug-related violence we read about Mexico because the narco events are mostly in the border cities and Yucatan is definitely far from those borders. With other expatriates, Yucatan is where I will be 10-15 years from now.
Back to Xevera, there can perhaps be a glimmer of hope with VP Binay investigating and hopefully fixing the darn mess. My sister and mom are cooperating with the NBI and Pag-Ibig and are sticking around despite our other purchase of a (hopefully) better and scam-free place in Mirus. Again, I have purchased the Mirus property just for my sister and mom because once both of them get here, I will still sell the Mirus property as I do not have plans to stay in the Philippines at all. For the meantime, other homeowner victims of Xevera urgently need to file a separate lawsuit or a restraining order against Globe Asiatique which still continues to operate in Xevera Mabalacat. Xevera’s continued operations are a mockery of the whole DOJ/NBI investigation process and an insult to well-meaning homeowners and a local court needs to put a stop on those operations pronto. There is already a class action suit on Xevera but a restraining order for them to cease and desist from operating in Xevera Mabalacat and other areas must also be secured.
And unless authorities, particularly politicians who call the shots, heed this legitimate cry from overseas Filipinos like me, who have the purchasing power to contribute to economic development, Mabalacat and other towns and provinces will lose the dollars that otherwise I would have brought home with me in my retirement years (I will have at least pension funds from both my work and social security). Now those dollars will be well spent in Merida in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, the new land of my dreams.
