Mortgage Informer

Two former executives of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp (NHMFC) were charged Monday before the Sandiganbayan in connection with an alleged land-titling scam in Caloocan City.

Those charged were Obed Cutaran, former NHFMC executive vice-president, and Celso Z. Fernandez III, former manager of the NHMFC-Community Mortgage Group.

The two were charged after Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer I Janet C. Cabigas-Vejerano recommended to indict the duo on 32 counts of graft and 32 counts of falsification of public documents.

The recommendation was approved by Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas N. Gutierrez.

A private defendant, Guadalupe Dominguez, was also named co-accused in the 32 counts of graft.

Dismissed, however, were complaints filed against Domingo B. Paguia, Regulo B. Coloma and Vicente A. Garcia, who successively served as acting Registers of Deeds of Caloocan City.

The records of the complaints filed indicate that 302 families of an urban poor organization in Makati City, Samahan ng Mahihirap sa PNR-Medina, secured a P7.27 million loan from NHMFC in January 1990.

The loan was used to purchase a 5.62-hectare public land in Barangay Makatipo in Malaria, Caloocan City under NHMFC’s Community Mortgage Program (CMP).

Based on the CMP policy, individual titles of subdivided lots would be issued to the group’s members only upon full payment of their share of the loan.

Probers said that in 1998, Fernandez and Cutaran approved the release of mortgage on 38 lots despite the fact that there was still only partial payment.

The records showed that transfer certificates of title were subsequently issued on the 38 lots. The Ombudsman said, however, that all of the titles were released to only one person – defendant Dominguez – who was neither an employee of NHMFC nor a member of the urban poor organization.

The Caloocan Register of Deeds records allegedly showed that none of the persons whose names appeared in the 38 titles was a member of the urban poor group.

“Conspiracy in the present case is founded on a firm basis, not only through documentary evidence but also by sizing up the concerted action of respondents Fernandez, Cutaran and Dominguez who have common criminal design and purpose to cheat defraud or deceive the rightful recipients of their home lots,” said prosecutor Vejerano.

Of the 38 titles that were subject of the complaint, investigators however found that only 32 titles bore irregularities.

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Tags: home mortgage