BORROWERS STILL FACE HARASSMENT

OFFICIALS of the SS Marketing Inc., a lending company, and its borrowers from the ranks of the urban poor in Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City failed to pursue the terms of settlement they agreed on during their scheduled meeting last March 30 at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) office.

Only one of the 15 collectors of the company, Cristina Martinez, showed up at the NBI to meet the borrowers from Sitios Bagong Barrio, Sabangan, Tondalingan and Sapang Bato and she not only failed to submit the individual statements of accounts of the borrowers, but also refused to accept payments of the borrowers.

Instead, she said, Santiago Maligson Jr., SSMI manager, instructed her to direct the borrowers to pay individually in their office.

Lawyer Jose Netu Tamayo, who is representing the borrowers in the complaint they filed against the company and its officials for perjury, falsification and other cases, complained that the company did not comply with agreement reached last February 27 at the NBI office but noted the absence of Maligson as well.

Tamayo caught up with Maligson when the former called him on his phone and the latter asked for a meeting with Tamayo and Norlo Galang, NBI special investigator assigned to the case by Atty. Norman Taloza, NBI chief, in one of the offices at the NBI compound.

Tamayo, a councilor of Dagupan, said he objected to Maligson’s suggestion that the borrowers pay the principal of their loan without interest at their office, and insisted that the payments still be made at the NBI office as agreed upon earlier but agreed to the request that payments of borrowers be scheduled on different dates starting April 6.

Maligson suggested the loans of the first 20 borrowers will be processed first on April 6, a Monday, and another set of 20 borrowers the following Monday and subsequent Mondays thereafter until all the borrowers are covered

But Tamayo insisted that the company must also still present the statements of account of the borrowers before any payment could be made at the NBI office. Anticipating full compliance with the terms of agreement, he suggested that the company already designates a lawyer representing their interests who can discuss the process to simplify the legal proceedings.

Tamayo warned that full payment of the loan by some borrowers, who are facing estafa cases filed by the company against them before the municipal trial court of Talavera in Nueva Ecija for alleged violation of the contract of trust agreement they signed with the company, still does not guarantee that the cases will be dropped.

ARRESTED

Tamayo advised his clients to be ready with their bail bond of P10,000 each in case the warrants for their arrest issued against them will still be served to arrest them as was the case of three borrowers who were arrested and held at the NBI detention cell for days.

The three eventually posted bail before the courts in Dagupan City, but not after languishing in jail for a few days. The three are Maria Gianan, Rexie Pulanco and Shirley Bamilla.

The warrants were issued by Municipal Trial Court Judge Marinel Agudo Santos, acting presiding judge of Talavera, Nueva Ecija, who set their arraignment on April 20 this month.

Gianan was detained at the NBI detention cell for one month until she managed to post her P10,000 bail bond. She admitted borrowing P7,000 from the company which she was supposed to amortize daily for 45 days but when she thought the loan she had was already down to P1,400, she said she was surprised to find out she is being charged P9,000 more. For failing to pay, she was sued for estafa before the Talavera court.

Pulanco spent one week under detention and one day for Bumilla for failing to post their respective bail bonds right away.

Tamayo complained his clients continue to be harassed by officials of the company even after they reached an agreement on the settlement on February 27. He cited the case of one borrower who was was fetched at her home on the pretext that she was asked to meet a company official but was actually being arrested. Fortunately she managed to run away.

ILLEGAL OPERATIONS

Meanwhile, the Dagupan City government has determined that SSMI was operating without a business permit and did not have a license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to operate as a money lender.

The company also did not issue company’s official receipts to acknowledge payments of its borrowers, instead, payments were only acknowledged by the company’s collectors with notes in small notebooks being kept by the borrowers.

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