VALEDICTORY. Xevera developer Delfin Lee assures homeowners their rights will be upheld by new developer Westchester Realty. Photo by Bong Lacson
MABALACAT CITY – There’s light at the end of the tunnel for home buyers of the Xevera housing projects in Bacolor, Pampanga and Barangay Tabun here as well as the Sameera socialized housing project straddling the boundary of Angeles City and Mexico, Pampanga.
Westchester Realty Corp., a subsidiary of the RGV Group of Companies, has taken over the Globe Asiatique (GA) owned properties for P2.2 billion which is due in 24 months to the Pag-IBIG Fund which put up the said properties for bidding in December last year.
During the flag raising ceremony at the city hall here on Monday, veteran property and housing developer and former congressman Rodolfo G. Valencia, chair of the RGV Group Companies, announced the official take over and immediate rehabilitation the Xevera and Sameera housing projects.
The city hall was donated by GA owner Delfin Lee and is located inside Xevera Mabalacat where the gathered city hall employees and Xevera residents cheered the announcement.
The declaration was preceded by the signing of the Deed of Conditional Sale last month between the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) and Westchester, a subsidiary of the RGV Group of Companies.
The recent development was good news for about 4,700 home buyers of the GA properties after its owner Lee was involved in an alleged P6. 6 billion housing loan anomaly in 2014 where he faced syndicated estafa charges.
Speaking before a large audience at the frontage of city hall that bears his name, Lee said he requested and was given assurance by Valencia that Westchester would give Xevera homeowners the right-of-first refusal in their properties before offering them to outsiders.
Valencia said he will abide by the agreement which is bounded by four conditions – to pay Pag-IBIG P2.2 billion in 24 months, rehabilitate the facilities and amenities of the Xevera housing projects as well as Sameera, rehabilitate the houses in the properties, and to put into order the accounts of the homebuyers which have been mismanaged for the last decade.
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Valencia said his company will invest an initial P1 billion for the improvement of the properties and bring back its lost glory and later another P1 billion.
He recalled that he was here 10 years ago during its inauguration on January 25, 2009 which was aired live on television and saw Xevera as the best community in the Philippines.
Valencia, who chaired the committee on housing and urban development in congress for six years and was the principal author of RA 9679 or the Pag-IBIG Fund Charter, also said they have already started processing the documents of homebuyers as he encouraged other homebuyers to immediately visit their local offices at Xevera.
“Home ownership is never a privilege but a right by any qualified home borrower or buyer,” he said.
As for Lee, “it’s time to move on,” he said.
