Taking a second look

At least three members of UCPB’s board of directors recently got people in Malacanang so mad after their true political loyalty was revealed. The violent reaction is just natural and expected – it is, after all, the President who appointed these directors to the bank’s board.

The bank’s board of directors, composed of representatives from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (which recently funneled P20 billion into UCPB), the Presidential Commission on Good Government (which ensures that government’s interest in UCPB is protected pending final resolution of the bank’s ownership case) and the coconut farming sector have one thing in common: all are presidential appointees.

Among the newly-appointed directors of the bank are Deogracias Vistan (chairman), Norberto Nazareno, and Rolando Golez who supported Raul Roco in the 1998 presidential election. The same is true with Ruben Carranza who represents the PCGG in the board. Come 2004, they are still not likely to support President Arroyo when she bids for a second presidential term.

Already, Nazareno is positioned in the finance committee of Roco’s 2004 campaign team.

Putting their presidential preference aside, the political loyalties of Vistan, Nazareno, Golez and Carranza also raise some doubts on their capability to effectively clean up the mess that is UCPB.

Lawyer Lorna Kapunan is Roco’s partner in his lawfirm. She also happens to be the sister of Domingo Patajo, who is the person behind the UCAP fiasco, which spelled disaster to the books of some of the country’s top banks. In UCPB’s case, P6 billion of its bad loans are all due to UCAP, ergo, to Patajo. In fact, UCAP is the single biggest cause why UCPB’s books became really ugly.

With these Roco loyalists sitting in the board, people are asking what the odds are that a convenient cover up will be done in due time. President Arroyo might have to give this appointment a second look before things make a turn for the worse in UCPB.

When Things Come To An End

Friday night became a reunion of sorts – one of the biggest if not the most successful – of past and present media people who have covered the agriculture beat. The occasion: the retirement of media office chief Renato Faustino, Mang Ato to all of us.

It’s very difficult to explain how Mang Ato became part of our lives. He was never your typical government spokesperson who oftentimes is on the opposite side of the fence, quarreling with the media everytime negative publicity comes up. He is a father figure, a friend, a confidant, a matchmaker, a source of news (good or bad). His loyalty is with his job, not with the powers-that-be.

Among those who eagerly showed up are moi, STAR assistant business editor Roman Floresca, Inquirer columnist Conrad Banal and assistant business editor Corrie Narisma, former Manila Standard business editor Stella Arnaldo, Business World’s Armin Amio, magazine editor Butch del Castillo, PR practitioners Resty Perez and Milen de Quiros, and other past and present mediamen including Ruben Pascual, Marlen Ronquillo, Vet Vitug, Nonie Pelayo, Mike Alunan, Des Ferriols, Lawrence Agcaoili, Jenny Austria, Warren Castillo, Lee Chipongian, as well as reporters covering the agribeat including Rocel Felix, Gigi de Vera, Othel Campos, Rhea Carlos, Dek Villanueva, Mel Cabigting, Melody Aguiba, Jenny Ng, Roderick dela Cruz, Christine Gaylican, and Betsy Ison. Of course, the evening will not be complete without the antics of our perennial emcee and life of the party Emmet Penson and the presence of our idol Ding Panganiban, presently chief of staff of Sen. Loren Legarda.

The press office at the Department of Agriculture was not only a place for work for us who covered the agribeat; it was also our second home. The DA press office will never be the same without Mang Ato around.

More Bank Woes

Back to UCPB.

UCPB insiders are becoming more and more uncomfortable with the kind of leadership that this top bank official is showing. While his principal task is to ensure that the bank’s rehabilitation plan is properly implemented and to turn the bank around, so far, he has only succeeded in two things: showing his ineptness and bringing employee morale down.

This guy was hired in August principally because of his connections with the bank’s president. Previously on retirement, he rejoined the work force when he was given the break to occupy a sensitive post at UCPB, a position he is now enjoying and exploiting to the hilt. Many bank employees swear to have witnessed many instances when he would show everyone he is god, ordering people around, obviously power tripping. Some instances:

1-He called one of the bank’s vice presidents his utusan (slave). He did that while talking to one of the VP’s associates in his line of work.

2-During meetings, he asks bank officers (VPs) to prepare his coffee, answer his wife’s calls, get his notebook from his room.

3-On his first few days in UCPB, he expressed dissatisfaction with his secretary, whom he called a "rotten tomato." To satisfy his ego, he appointed an assistant vice president to be his executive assistant, ergo, secretary.

4-To spare himself of doing the tasks assigned to him, he plucks people from out of nowhere to ask them to do some "special projects" for him. These special assignments come with promises to bring these unknowns closer to heaven’s gates.

5-He loves to flaunt the fact that he is boss by shouting at people he’s not very happy with. One time, one of the officers he embarrassed in a very public gathering collapsed in frustration. Panic-stricken, our subject official rushed the poor officer to the emergency room of the hospital nearest to the event venue.

Worse, aside from his display of foul behavior, he has also shown inadequacies in his present post. Some instances:

1-He got into the nerves of the bank president himself when he attended a strategic planning session totally unprepared and just asked his one downs to just do their individual presentations. He was, of course, expected to consolidate all plans and tell one story for his group. Totally exasperated with his performance during the session, UCPB president Jojo Querubin asked that the meeting be stopped – resumed only after our poor official did his consolidated story.

2-After launching an internal deposit generation campaign highlighted by a grand launch that cost the bank some P1 million in October, he committed to a target of P20 billion in fresh deposits upon the campaign’s conclusion. After only a few weeks, he was already asking that the target be brought down to P16 million. This, obviously, caught the ire of Querubin who was banking on the previous "commitment" that the official gave him.

Given all these, you be the judge if this guy is the person that UCPB needs to turn it around.

For comments, e-mail at rmaryannl@yahoo.com