MANILA, Philippines -- The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank traded criminal charges yesterday before the Department of Justice (DoJ) in connection with the closure of the savings bank last March 17. First to file a complaint was Banco Filipino which charged BSP officials and the Monetary Board (MB) with violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Represented by Maxy Abad, Francisco Rivera, and Mary Lou Vasquez, Banco Filipino claimed that the BSP and MB officials violated the anti-graft law when they denied the grant of emergency loans to the bank and issuing an order that placed the bank under receivership and eventual closure.
They claimed that the closure “was done with manifest partiality, evident bad faith and gross inexcusable negligence to the damage and prejudice of Banco Filipino, its stockholders and depositors."
Hours later, the BSP filed its counter-charges against the directors and officers of Banco Filipino.
The BSP said the directors of Banco Filipino should be charged criminally for their willful refusal to file audited financial statements from 2002 to 2007 as required by law.
It also charged Abad, Banco Filipino president Teodoro Arcenas Jr. and director Perfecto Yasay Jr. with falsification and issuance of false statements to hide true financial condition of the savings bank, willful refusal to report loans, 26 counts of violation of BSP laws and directives, and willful refusal to cease conduct of unsafe, hazardous, and unsound bank practices.
In its complaint the BSP said: “The criminal charges that the bank officers are now facing gives the public a glimpse of the unsound banking practices that inevitably led to Banco Filipino's closure. More than half of the bank loan's portfolio was allocated to the directors, officers, stockholders and other related interest of the bank.”
The BSP also said that “the bank also spent as much as P162 million in one year for the payment of management consultants and refused to reduce the number despite an express BSP directive to do so.”
In a 30-page complaint filed for Banco Filipino by lawyer Harry Roque Jr., the savings bank named as respondents BSP Governor Amado Tetangco Jr., Deputy Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr., Deputy Governor and General Counsel Juan de Zuniga Jr., and MB members Juanita Amatong, Alfredo Fio Antonio, Ignacio Bunye, and Peter Favila.
