Mortgage firm refutes Tulfo’s allegations

THIS REFERS to Ramon Tulfo’s column titled “Syndicate at the gov’t-run home mortgage firm” (Metro, 5/26/15).

To clarify:

1. It was not the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC) which unilaterally gave the instruction to the Marianos to redeem the property in one year. This right is available to the Marianos by law, as the property had been extrajudicially foreclosed for the Mariano daughter’s nonpayment of her loan obligation which, as of Oct. 31, 2012, had already ballooned to P967,806.03.

Extrajudicial foreclosure is a remedy available to the NHMFC as mortgagee; and this remedy, the NHMFC has availed itself of. Being a court proceeding, the result thereof is beyond the NHMFC’s control. Neither does the NHMFC have any say as to who may enter their bids in the proceedings as the details of the auction are published in newspapers of general circulation. The mere existence of a third party in a published auction does not connote the existence of a “syndicate” as the column states.

2. That the Marianos chose to exercise their right to redeem the property within the one-year period is not affected, in any way, by the discretion of the NHMFC—a right validly exercised and submitted in court, which issued the corresponding certificate of redemption. The NHMFC is required to release the real estate mortgage over the property as the result of the extrajudicial foreclosure of the same. It is required to release the title to the third-party highest bidder for the latter to have his/her claim over the property registered. In cases such as these, redemption shall have to be made with the third-party bidder and not from the NHMFC simply because the NHMFC no longer has interest over the property which had been sold at auction.

3. As to the allegation stated in the column that the NHMFC’s legal department manager informed the Marianos that the property would be returned for P900,000, the NHMFC is in no position to confirm or deny this as it is not privy to what transpired outside of office premises. The transfer certificate of title has been released to the third-party highest bidder.

4. As to the allegation that “Rivera’s name reportedly crops up constantly in auctions for property foreclosed by the NHMFC,” it must be pointed out again that extrajudicial foreclosures are applied for and conducted in court. By its very nature, a public auction is open to the public and anyone may enter their bid for multiple properties provided that the bids entered are supported with adequate funding. The NHMFC cannot prohibit or deprive any person from bidding over properties mortgaged to them simply because their name “crops up constantly at auctions.” To purchase more than one property is not synonymous with anomalous transactions. To allude to the same as proof of unlawful transactions by way of syndicate activities is to

deny a third-party highest bidder the presumption of good faith and to insinuate unlawful interference by a court in a proceeding submitted to its jurisdiction.

—SIEG LAPASARAN, corporate secretary, National Home Mortgage Finance Corp.