Poor borrowers to ask PICPA for help
SOME 300 residents of Barangay Bonuan Gueset will likely need the services of accountants when they meet officials of a lending company in their second meeting at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) office on March 30.
This was bared by Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, who is representing the group in their complaint against the lending firm and its officials in Dagupan.
Tamayo said he is inclined to request the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) chapter in Pangasinan to send volunteers who can help scrutinize the statements of accounts that will be prepared by the lending company, SS Marketing Inc.
The borrowers who were deemed in default in the their loan payments all come from the ranks of the urban poor in Sitios Bagong Barrio, Sabangan, Sapang Bato and Tondaligan in Barangay Bonuan Boquig.
The lending firm allegedly with head office in Talavera, Nueva Ecija and a branch office in Dagupan City was verified to be operating without business permit.
In their second face-off, Tamayo said SSMI will present the statements of accounts that will merely list the principal amount of the loan since the company had agreed to waive the interest rates as a compromise settlement.
The principal amount, maximum of P6,000 over a 40-day period, will include the values of home items given to the borrowers that formed part of the loan.
Since most of the borrowers have no regular sources of income, many defaulted in the payment of their loans whose interest rates have already exceeded the principal loan amount.
Most of the borrowers said they were made to sign blank forms for their loans which turned out to be contracts of trust agreement, an arrangement unknown to the borrowers.
This resulted in the filing of charges against some of the borrowers in a court in Talavera, Nueva Ecija against whom had been issued warrants of arrest.
Tamayo clarified that the settlement of the estafa cases filed by the company against some of the borrowers in Talavera, Nueva Ecija will have to be resolved separately. (Leonardo Micua)
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