A buyer’s nightmare

The Justice Department has received several complaints regarding questionable transactions in the preselling of real estate/condominiums/townhouses which are often unfinished and which the buyers are not equitably refunded of their money.

In cases where we have initiated the prosecution for estafa, the same were effectively preempted because it appears that the final jurisdiction over these cases belongs to the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB).

In some instances, developers avoid litigation, contending that it is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which orders the suspension of work because either the funds have been squandered or the rehabilitation proceedings have been suspended. 

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Innocent Filipino workers, many of whom have labored abroad in the hope of purchasing a decent living area, end up losing their shirt to unscrupulous subdivision/condominium developers who entice buyers by doing initial work on real-estate projects, put up props to convey a sense of urgency, then suddenly discontinues the construction without giving any explanation for the stoppage.

Sadly, the poor property buyers have nowhere to go to ventilate their complaints because of the jurisdiction issue.

We invited representatives of the HLURB, the SEC and the Real Estate Brokers of the Philippines (Rebap) for a conference to resolve these problems which clearly prejudice buyers to come up with a clear and fair manner of addressing this issue, and assist the President in streamlining and simplifying the real estate/home ownership concept. 

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I, too, had a sad experience with the CA. In one of my confirmation hearings, I was asked by the CA chairman then on who is more popular, Erap or President Gloria Arroyo.

My answer was drowned by the laughter of the crowd inside the hall, but I was wondering what the popularity of either Erap or GMA have to do with my confirmation? But that’s the CA and everything is political. I’d like to think that the bribe demand is not typical. 

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It is not a pipe dream, and the will is there to give the President’s vision a push to turn the Philippines into a rising star in the quality level of Singapore.

In her 2006 Sona, the President cited many breakthroughs that her critics said cannot be done, but was accomplished before the 2006 Sona came around. She proved that she could do it.

Earlier, she emphasized two priority objectives that should be accomplished before any dramatic breakthrough can be done: the taming of red tape in the bureaucracy and the elimination of graft and corruption in government.

Her initiatives toward achieving these two objectives will go beyond her term as president and we hope that future administrations will pick up the challenge and continue to propel the Philippines into a First World country.

The President admits that what we need is a new standard of transparency in our government and our society. Red tape and graft and corruption will wither in a transparent atmosphere where the public can demand for accountability of its leaders and government officials in a manner that is untainted with political color but strictly for helping the economy move forward and keep pace with a fast-changing world. 

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To many people, franchising is the most accessible door for getting entry into the world of business. In fact, many outlets bearing established names from Mercury Drug to Jollibee are franchises held by independent entrepreneurs, mostly young couples who are opting for optimum success in a keenly competitive field.

But come the scammers, and suddenly the rule of the game is altered to the detriment of the investors.

The Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. is warning the unsuspecting public that “scam boys” are selling franchise packages for a much lower franchise fee, complete with brochures and business literatures but, in truth, these “franchises” are merely copies of the real thing and ultimately leaves the poor would-be entrepreneur on his own without assistance from the legitimate franchiser.

Check your options first, and also the legitimacy of the franchise offer, and double check with the franchising company before you part with your money.

Beware of’ “discounted” offers. 

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A lot of people are eager to pin the blame for the so-called extrajudicial killings on the military even without hard evidence that the military has anything to do with it, or even some of it.

Now comes a news report that a woman peace-advocate was shot to death by armed men who were believed to be communist guerrillas in a barangay in San Pablo City, Laguna.

A divorced Muslim, Fatima Abubakar Sevilla, 41, is said to be a disillusioned leader of the leftist organization Bayan Muna, and became active in propeace and democracy rallies in the provinces and in exposing the criminal activities of communist rebels and its front organizations.

Fr. Romeo Intengan, a Jesuit priest, denounced her murder by the communist New People’s Army which continues to harass members of the Aksyon Sambayanan for advocating peace in direct contrast to the cause espoused by the communists.

I hope that we will all be cautious on whom we entrust our sympathies.

Our economic managers may be decidedly upbeat on account of the peso’s consistently strong showing, the ever-growing OFW remittances and the first quarter’s better-than-expected GDP growth rate.

‘Young Politics” was the theme of my June 18, 2007, column. I wrote that in the wake of the multiple crises faced by the country, the trend is not only toward New Politics but primarily Young Politics.

I recently watched the film Going for Broke, which is about a woman’s downward spiral from being a topnotch head of fundraising for a large foundation in Reno, Nevada, to a convicted felon because of her overwhelming addiction to gambling. 

PDIC is of course the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., the co-protector of millions of banking clients, being the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) coregulator of all banks and a key stabilizing institution of the country’s financial system.

The Justice Department has received several complaints regarding questionable transactions in the preselling of real estate/ condominiums/ townhouses which are often unfinished and which the buyers are not equitably refunded of their money.

In September 1997, at the height of the Asian crisis, Robert Rubin visited China’s Great Wall. It was a brief respite from the tense talks in which the former US Treasury secretary was embroiled in Beijing.