AN ALLEGATION – one of the many – being slapped on Globe Asiatique by certain quarters is that the names of some Pag-Ibig members are being used to take out housing loans by other individuals.
More than Globe Asiatique, it should be Pag-Ibig that should be made accountable for this scam, having existed long before Globe Asiatique came into being. I should know. I was scammed. The irony of it was that I pnly learned about it when I applied for a housing unit with Globe Asiatique. Here’s a piece about it published here sometime in early 2008.
“SIR, WE found out you had a housing loan with Pag-ibig.”
Dumbstruck was I by that info given me over the phone by the beautiful Karen of Xevera, the community where I and the wife plan to move in.
How can that be, I asked, I am not even a Pag-ibig member.
Sensing something amiss here, I asked Karen to provide the wife with all the papers about this “loan.” The wife being minister for home affairs.
With but a photocopied incomplete confirmation form, the wife rushed to the Pag-ibig office the very next day to inquire.
Yes indeed, there was a Caesar Z. Lacson of the Office of Media Affairs (OMA) that contracted a housing loan with Pag-ibig in 1984. As far as I know, I was the only Caesar Z. Lacson that ever worked with the OMA from its early incarnation as the Department of Public Information to its latest as the Philippine Information Agency. Yes, the birthday matched mine. Yes, I contributed to Pag-ibig from 1984 to December 1986.
But I never applied for a loan with Pag-ibig. In 1984, the wife and I were just four years into our GSIS housing loan for our St. Jude Village abode. So, with the policy then banning simultaneous housing loans, it was impossible for me to get another housing loan.
The catch in the fraud was that the Pag-ibig loan attributed to me was for some housing in Lucena City!
Why in heaven’s name should I build a house in Lucena City when I am based here in Pampanga? I have gone through the whole breadth of the Philippines from Patapat Road up north to Tawi-Tawi down south but I have never – in all my over half-a-century life – set foot in Lucena City.
So, that loan was fully paid. So what?
There is a clear case of identity theft there. I demand a full investigation from Pag-ibig.
That somebody could use my person and my credit for his use is patently criminal. And this could be done only with the connivance of Pag-ibig insiders, they having all the personal data about their members.
Imagine how many more cases like mine obtain there.
Cone to think of it, here is one more argument against the national ID system. The unscrupulous can exploit the stored personal data to their advantage, whether economic, political or what have you.
Now, my Xevera application is jeopardized for something I absolutely have not the slightest knowledge of. Somebody’s got to pay for this.
Or forever will I hate Pag-ibig.
No, I won’t settle for a certification that Caesar Z. Lacson, then of the Office of Media Affairs, has fully paid his housing loan with Pag-ibig. If only to meet the requirements of Xevera.
I did not make that loan. I will not accept anything less than the truth. That Caesar Z. Lacson never made any loan with Pag-ibig.
And I want that certification soonest.
YES, and to this day, I have not received any certification to that effect from Pag-ibig. Shame.
More than Globe Asiatique, it should be Pag-Ibig that should be made accountable for this scam, having existed long before Globe Asiatique came into being. I should know. I was scammed. The irony of it was that I pnly learned about it when I applied for a housing unit with Globe Asiatique. Here’s a piece about it published here sometime in early 2008.
“SIR, WE found out you had a housing loan with Pag-ibig.”
Dumbstruck was I by that info given me over the phone by the beautiful Karen of Xevera, the community where I and the wife plan to move in.
How can that be, I asked, I am not even a Pag-ibig member.
Sensing something amiss here, I asked Karen to provide the wife with all the papers about this “loan.” The wife being minister for home affairs.
With but a photocopied incomplete confirmation form, the wife rushed to the Pag-ibig office the very next day to inquire.
Yes indeed, there was a Caesar Z. Lacson of the Office of Media Affairs (OMA) that contracted a housing loan with Pag-ibig in 1984. As far as I know, I was the only Caesar Z. Lacson that ever worked with the OMA from its early incarnation as the Department of Public Information to its latest as the Philippine Information Agency. Yes, the birthday matched mine. Yes, I contributed to Pag-ibig from 1984 to December 1986.
But I never applied for a loan with Pag-ibig. In 1984, the wife and I were just four years into our GSIS housing loan for our St. Jude Village abode. So, with the policy then banning simultaneous housing loans, it was impossible for me to get another housing loan.
The catch in the fraud was that the Pag-ibig loan attributed to me was for some housing in Lucena City!
Why in heaven’s name should I build a house in Lucena City when I am based here in Pampanga? I have gone through the whole breadth of the Philippines from Patapat Road up north to Tawi-Tawi down south but I have never – in all my over half-a-century life – set foot in Lucena City.
So, that loan was fully paid. So what?
There is a clear case of identity theft there. I demand a full investigation from Pag-ibig.
That somebody could use my person and my credit for his use is patently criminal. And this could be done only with the connivance of Pag-ibig insiders, they having all the personal data about their members.
Imagine how many more cases like mine obtain there.
Cone to think of it, here is one more argument against the national ID system. The unscrupulous can exploit the stored personal data to their advantage, whether economic, political or what have you.
Now, my Xevera application is jeopardized for something I absolutely have not the slightest knowledge of. Somebody’s got to pay for this.
Or forever will I hate Pag-ibig.
No, I won’t settle for a certification that Caesar Z. Lacson, then of the Office of Media Affairs, has fully paid his housing loan with Pag-ibig. If only to meet the requirements of Xevera.
I did not make that loan. I will not accept anything less than the truth. That Caesar Z. Lacson never made any loan with Pag-ibig.
And I want that certification soonest.
YES, and to this day, I have not received any certification to that effect from Pag-ibig. Shame.
