Koreans, Other Foreigners Using Dummies to Acquire Baguio Lots

This is a practice which plagues the entire real estate market- I personally have known of cases where marriages between filipinas and foreigners (especially from Hong Kong and America) were arranged simply to allow for investment in property, in one case to exorbitant profit by American company. Why do we have these laws if they are not followed? Do we want to return to american ownership of our country? And of course there are always problems, sometimes serious ones, with these arrangements- if the foreign investor turns out to be a crook, then it is the wife who, as legal owner, holds responsibility. Maybe she or her family make a small amount but is it worth it.

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BAGUIO CITY – Foreigners, most of them Koreans, are using unwitting Filipinos as dummies to illegally acquire properties in this mountain resort city, changing the face of the real estate business, here.

Under the Constitution, foreigners are allowed only up to 40 percent ownership of a property or business and the remaining 60 percent must be owned by a Filipino or Filipino-based firm.

However, real estate brokers interviewed by TEMPO said many foreigners, particularly Koreans, have devised ways of circumventing Philippine laws on the ownership of businesses and properties by conniving with Filipinos willing to be used as their fronts.

They said some Koreans buy parcels of prime land in the city easily because they offer a higher buying price than the existing zonal value.

Some foreigners have already constructed high-end condominium/office buildings and driven rental rates up, much to the detriment of local businessmen who succumb to such competition in real-estate and hamper the growth of Filipino entrepreneurial ventures.

But what alarms many real estate brokers more, apart from their significant loss in income, is that some Korean financiers are not hiring licensed professionals to ensure that the buildings they construct conform to standards under the National Building Code of the Philippines.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) records show that there are 11,889 Koreans now in the city, making them the largest foreign group here.

With their business acumen coupled with a continued acquisition of prime lots in the city, Koreans may soon likely displace locals and the Filipino-Chinese community as the majority stakeholders of trade and commerce, here. (Dexter A. See)