Reached for comment, the Muntinlupa City Public Information Office issued a terse statement:
“The City of Muntinlupa is aware of the ongoing NBI investigation. We assure the public that there is no cover-up. Any illegal activities at the Bliss Housing Project are the actions of rogue individuals, not city policy. We will wait for the court’s findings before commenting further.”
But silence is deafening. The mayor, who is perceived to be running for a higher position in 2025, has not appeared in public since the raid. His schedule says “Health Break.” His critics say it is “Damage Control.”
By: Investigative Desk Dateline: MUNTINLUPA CITY, PHILIPPINES
In the shadow of the sprawling industrial parks and the glimmering high-rises of Alabang lies a forgotten world. The Muntinlupa Bliss Housing Project—a collection of dilapidated, concrete row houses originally built in the 1980s for informal settlers—has always smelled of rust and desperation. But over the last 72 hours, it has begun to smell like kerosene and betrayal.
This is the Muntinlupa Bliss Scandal Part 1 Exclusive.
For years, whispers have circulated among the 2,000 registered beneficiaries of the Bliss site. Whispers of “ghost beneficiaries,” of demolition threats that never came, and of a mysterious "pink ledger" that allegedly connects some of the country’s most aggressive land developers to the barangay captains of Barangay Tunasan and Bayanan.
Now, after a midnight raid by the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) Anti-Graft Division, those whispers have become a deafening roar. muntinlupa bliss scandal part 1 exclusive
Beyond the electoral fraud lies the money. The real money.
The Bliss project was subsidized by the National Housing Authority (NHA) under a Community Mortgage Program (CMP). Residents were supposed to pay a monthly amortization of just PHP 450 to PHP 800. But in 2018, residents began receiving notices of delinquency for amounts as high as PHP 45,000.
How?
An exclusive ledger, leaked by a former barangay treasurer, reveals a systematic scheme. A private collection agency—registered under a shell corporation named “New Horizon Property Management”—was hired without public bidding in 2017.
This agency did not collect the PHP 450 official fee. Instead, they imposed “processing fees,” “maintenance dues,” and a mysterious line item called “Amilyar Plus” (a fake real property tax).
“They told us if we didn’t pay, we would be evicted and our children would go to jail,” says Cristina (not her real name), a 54-year-old widow raising three grandchildren. She showed us receipts. For a unit that should cost PHP 450/month, she paid PHP 2,800 in October 2022. The receipt was printed on thermal paper with no official NHA logo.
When Cristina tried to complain at City Hall, she was turned away. A security guard took her complaint letter. She never saw it again. Reached for comment, the Muntinlupa City Public Information
The next day, two men on a motorcycle circled her unit. They didn’t speak. They just pointed at her door.
“I stopped complaining after that,” she said.
Here is the detail that the local news missed.
During our six-week investigation, we obtained a spreadsheet of Pag-IBIG payments from Bliss Muntinlupa for the year 2022. According to the government’s own records, 88% of the 1,200 active units were paying their PHP 1,500 monthly amortization (upgraded from the original PHP 15 in the 90s).
But when we cross-referenced those payments with the actual bank statements of the Muntinlupa City Housing Department? There is a discrepancy of PHP 7.2 Million.
Where did the money go?
According to a whistleblower we will call “The Accountant,” the money was funneled through a small cooperative called Samahang Kapitbahay ng Muntinlupa (SKM). The cooperative was supposed to collect the payments and remit them to Pag-IBIG. “The City of Muntinlupa is aware of the
“They never remitted for 14 months,” The Accountant says. “They used the money to pay for the legal fees to evict the original tenants. The original tenants were the ones paying. The ones they want to replace? They are the partners of the developers. They don’t pay rent.”
To understand the scandal, one must first understand the geography of desperation. The Bliss development—officially known as the Muntinlupa Low-Cost Housing Project—was erected in the late 1990s. Located along the boundary of Brgy. Tunasan and Brgy. Poblacion, the complex was designed to relocate informal settlers from the危险的 railway tracks and esteros.
The promise was simple: a 25-square-meter row house with a toilet, a concrete floor, and a legal leasehold title. For a family earning 200 pesos a day, it was heaven.
But heaven, in Muntinlupa, has a very short shelf life.
According to exclusive documents obtained by this paper from a whistleblower inside the City Housing Department (name withheld for security), the original roster of 1,200 beneficiary families has been altered no less than 47 times since 2015. But the official minutes show only three amendments.
“That’s the first lie,” said the source, speaking in a dark corner of a karinderia near the Bliss gate. “The list is a living organism. It breathes. It changes depending on who is in power.”