PCGG dared to convene UCPB stockholders

Businessman Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco yesterday challenged the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to call a stockholders’ meeting of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) to prove the commission has been running the bank properly.

Speaking before the Philippine Constructors Association at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City, Cojuangco said the PCGG has actually run the UCPB almost to ruin — to the detriment of coconut farmers.

"When it was sequestered in 1986, the UCPB was ranked No. 3 in the country’s banking industry. It was also the country’s first universal bank," Cojuangco said. "But now it has negative capital."

he said the UCPB is virtually bankrupt and needs to be bailed out at huge costs to the banking industry and the country.

The PCGG, Cojuangco added, has never called for a stockholders’ meeting, though it has had some seats on the UCPB board since the government takeover of the bank.

He said a stockholders’ meeting is necessary so that bank records can be scrutinized and the reason why the UCPB is bankrupt can be determined. – Paolo Romero