Many Filipinos and foreigners bought condo units from Megaworld & Empire East companies which are owned by Mr. Andrew Lim Tan (from Fujian, China). The Philippines have laws to protect realty installment buyers but those are not being implemented and the government is not doing anything despite of our cries for help. The 2 developers refuse to do the following:

1) issue full refund even if they failed to deliver the unit or develop the condominium project according to the approved plans and within the time limit.

2) issue at least 50% refund to some of those who thought that there's nothing wrong with the developer's payment plan of having 2 years in-house financing loan before the bank loan. Why do they offer 2 years of paying directly to the developer instead of making the buyers get a bank loan prior to signing a contract? Why can't they show the contract before asking for the downpayment. The answer to that is because they can make a lot of money by forfeiting the payments within the 2 year period if the buyer fails to get a bank loan even if their agents are giving assurance to buyers that they can surely get a bank loan & they will even handle that for the buyers. Some buyers feel that the developers are having collusion with the banks or its agents who disapproved their loan applications or delayed the release of their loan. 

If developers are in good faith, they will check first if a buyer can get a bank loan approval before making them pay reservation fee, downpayment & monthly amortization.

3) fix the ceiling leaks issues and other problems related to poor construction.

4) remove penalties that are not supposed to be charged

5) provide the amenities that are being expected by buyers with preselling condo unit contracts.

Aside from that, Megaworld sent a letter to a buyer that she can no longer access the unit even if they should only cancel the contract after 30 days from the time the buyer receives the notice of cancellation & after they issued the cash surrender value (or refund), based on Maceda law or Republic Act No. 6552. At that time, it was only a week or two from the time she got the notice and she didn't get a refund. Her furniture and appliances were still there in the unit & they only allowed collection of her items after 8 months or so because a new buyer will occupy the unit. 

The government agency (HLURB) which is expected to implement the Maceda law or Realty Installment Buyer Protection Act and Presidential Decree 957 told some of us to just a file case at HLURB which is more or less $120. Some said that they filed a case years ago but they still haven't received their refund. So far, we haven't heard of anyone who got a refund from Megaworld after winning a case with similar issues like ours. 

If a unit was paid for 2 years & the developer forfeited the payment then another buyer paid for 2 years & the payment was forfeited again, the cycle can continue making the developer get a lot of money and the buyer lose a lot of money. 

They say that buying a property is a good investment but it's not always the case. There are also some buyers who made a one time full payment for Megaworld & Empire East but they also got disappointed due to poor quality of the unit or the whole building, delays in turnover, homeowners association being managed by the developer's property management company which is the First Oceanic and delays in getting the Condominium Certificate of Title.

Most of us are OFWs and it's difficult for us to lose USD 6,000 up to USD 30,000 or more. 

Many of those who bought properties in the Philippines are not aware of the laws that are supposed to protect us so only those who found out about those laws are wanting to get the money they are entitled to. Since the developers' contract that mentions about forfeiture or all payment is being used for many years now, a lot of buyers already lost a huge amount of money so it's no wonder why Mr. Andrew Tan's net worth in 2015 was 4.5 billion dollars (reference: Inquirer.net). He has other businesses but each one of us who have similar complaints have lost more or less 1 million pesos so if it'll be added up, it's a huge amount of money considering the fact the they are doing that real estate business since 1989.

We want Megaworld and Empire East to follow the laws (Realty Installment Buyer Protection Act  Presidential Decree 957) and give us the money we are entitled to get based on those laws. We are not asking them to pay for our inconveniences. We are just asking for what is lawfully ours.

We also want the government to stop ignoring our cries just because those developers are paying huge taxes and donating lands such as that one in Iloilo. Our country needs funds just like what the President stated recently regarding the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) but why do we need to suffer? What's the point of having a government if it cannot implement the existing laws? 

We want a change. Please help us.