HDMF scam

I HOPE the Commission on Elections will shun technicalities and partisan politics and proceed to promptly squarely rule on the issue of whether or not Sen. Grace Poe has the right to run for Senator or for any other elective office in the Philippines.
This in view of her having previously renounced her Filipino citizenship to become an American citizen, and just recently, re-acquired that Filipino citizenship by taking an oath of allegiance to the Philippines.

This is a very important issue, not only insofar as Grace Poe’s being a senator, or her running for the presidency or vice presidency in 2016. It is more important in the light of persistent reports that many other Filipino politicians are in the same factual and legal status that she is in at the moment.
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The fact is, I have been repeatedly informed that many of our past and present elected officials continued holding on to their American (and other countries’) citizenships even while they were already discharging their duties in government in our country, a task which pertains solely to natural born Filipino citizens.

The case of Sen. Poe should therefore serve as a handle towards unmasking those who have given up their Filipino citizenships and acquired the citizenship of other countries, but continue to hold sensitive elective and even appointive positions in our government.

These politicians should no longer be allowed to hold those positions after rebuking their being Filipinos. After all, they have displayed their capacity to be disloyal to the Republic and to the Filipino nation by easily relinquishing their Filipino citizenships.
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In July, I wrote the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) on behalf of two retired public school teachers, Mrs. Carlina Montero and Mrs. Esperanza Rivera, to complain about supposed payments to them of big amounts of money by HDMF, but which they did not receive.

Montero and Rivera told me that according to various documents given to them, they were supposed to have claimed from HDMF “membership maturity” benefits. For Mrs. Montero, she appeared to have applied for and then received two tranches of the monetary benefits. The first was in the amount of P2,163.38, while the second was in the amount of P47,480.66.

For Mrs. Rivera, she appeared to have applied for and then also received the amounts of P14,281.51, and P19,945.62. The problem here is that both Mrs. Montero and Mrs. Rivera did not apply for any such “membership maturity” benefits. And neither did they receive any of the amounts supposedly paid to them.

In my letter for Mrs. Montero, here was what I said: “Salamat sa Diyos, sa Ngalan ni Jesus! Ms. Carlina Mauricio Montero, a member of your agency with HDMF ID no. 001127790609, sought our assistance in connection with documents which was furnished her showing that she received the amounts of P47,480.00 and P7,060.42 from your agency…

“Ms. Montero is saying she is not aware of any claim she made that would entitle her to receive such amounts, and that, up to the present, she has not received any such amounts yet. However, if there are really such amounts that she is entitled to, Ms. Montero is hereby demanding that they be officially delivered to her, within 72 hours from your receipt hereof.

My letter concluded: “Thank you and best regards. May God continue to lead the way for us all, as we reach within to embrace humanity, so we can be a gift to the world.” The letter for Mrs. Rivera contained the same wordings, except as to her name and the amounts that she was supposed to have applied for and received.

Maybe, the Office of the Ombudsman will have to look into these supposed payments of “membership maturity” benefits at HDMF. Surely, if the benefits were not really applied for, and were not duly received by the government employees in whose names they were released, this is graft and corruption of the highest order. Indeed, somebody must have received the money for themselves!

An investigation will have to be launched to determine the extent of these anomalous benefits payments––what is the number of employees who were supposedly given the benefits even if they did not apply for such benefits, how much government money were released to ghost recipients.

I am afraid this could involve billions of taxpayers’ money which may have gone down the drain or, more appropriately, inside the pockets of thieving officials. It is imperative that this should be looked into, to find out the perpetrators of this scam which could very well consist of plunder, so as to prosecute and then penalize them appropriately.
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Here is a reaction to what appears to be a scam at the HDMF where its officials appear to be paying big money so-called “membership maturity benefits” to government employees who have already retired, even when these retirees did not apply for those benefits and who were not given even a single centavo of what was supposed to be paid to them.

Read on: “I’m happy that you are now looking at perceived anomalies in HDMF… I hope you can also include inquiries regarding the seemingly exorbitant insurance premiums HDMF charges to housing loan availees. I am an availee of a housing loan (home improvement) for P1.7 million. Thus, the financed mortgaged asset is covered by fire insurance also for P1.7 million.

“While I acknowledge the benefit of an insurance coverage, my concern is the amount of the premium which I noticed to be so exorbitant. The same property has been also covered by similar type of insurance for P1 million which I placed myself with a very reputable company. For the past three years, the annual premium is only P1,905.00. HDMF, for P1.7 million, I paid P8,287.80… Why the big difference?”