By RIANNE PANGELINAN
Reporter
As of November 2007, the CDA has a total of 30 loans with outstanding balances and accrued interests totaling some $13 million that have been brought to court.
Oscar Camacho, acting chief executive officer of the Commonwealth Development Authority, said Monday that this indicates the high delinquency rate being experienced by the agency.
“It is true. The delinquency rate is high in terms of the dollar amount and number of borrowers,” Camacho said.
He did not cite a specific delinquency rate for the agency.
Camacho said that CDA has been diligent in collecting the dues and outstanding balances but because times are difficult, the numbers just keep on increasing.
To help older clients, CDA has lowered its interest rate from 9 percent to 2 percent and has expanded its installment terms from 15 years to 30 years.
“We've had a lot of successes since we've lowered the interest rate. The reason why we don't do the same for new borrowers is because they have already been warned that times are not easy. But we have reduced it to 7 percent for new borrowers.” he said.
For borrowers who simply cannot make any more payments, Camacho said the better idea is to just give the business back to CDA. “This way, the borrower wins because he becomes debt-free.”
“This saves us time, money and effort. Because even if you squeeze him out, there's still nothing there. He would have to disclose some of his assets to us and really, there's nothing,” he said.
Even with the new programs to help borrowers, Camacho said there have not been many borrowers.
“There are many applying but not many qualify,” he said.
Nonetheless, Camacho said, CDA has many good borrowers. “Even those who are not able to make due payments, we still try to work with them,” he said.
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