13 DBP execs face dismissal

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman ordered yesterday the dismissal from government service of 13 former and current officials of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) facing graft charges before the Sandiganbayan in connection with their alleged involvement in the granting of behest loans to Marcos-era trade minister Roberto Ongpin in 2009.

In a 54-page review decision signed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales last Nov. 21, the Ombudsman found liable for administrative offenses, grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of public service former DBP directors Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio Jr., Alexander Magno, Renato Velasco, and Franklin Velarde; former senior executive vice president and chief operating officer Edgardo Garcia; former SEVP Jesus Guevarra II; former vice president Crescencia Bundoc; former assistant vice president Teresita Tolentino; Branch Banking Sector manager for regional marketing center-Western Luzon Arturo Baliton; RMC-WL chief accounts management specialist Nelson Macatlang; RMC-MM assistant manager Marissa Cayetano; RMC-MM assistant manager Rodolfo Cerezo, and RMC-MM assistant manager Warren de Guzman.

 Magno, a columnist of The STAR, said they have filed a motion for reconsideration.

Morales ordered the forfeiture of the respondents’ retirement benefits, as well as their perpetual disqualification from holding public office or from taking civil service examinations.

“DBP is given five days within which to submit our compliance with respect to the implementation of the decision of the Ombudsman,” DBP first vice president and head of corporate affairs Leonora Fernandez said.

Fernandez said only four or five of the 13 are still with DBP. The others, she said, have resigned or retired from DBP.

Their dismissal stemmed from DBP’s extending a total of P660 million in loans from April and November 2009 to Ongpin’s Deltaventures Resource Inc. (DVRI).

“Respondents deliberately participated in the haphazard and hurried processing and granting DVRI’s loans, though obviously aware of doubts regarding the borrower’s capacity to repay the loans, and the significant exposure facing the bank in relation thereto,” the Ombudsman’s review decision read.

“Despite the irregularities surrounding the DBP-DVRI transactions, they insisted that the loans were not objectionable since the bank allegedly made a substantial profit therefrom,” it added.

But in the same decision, Morales recommended the dropping of administrative charges against former president and vice chairman Reynaldo David; former chairman Patricia Sto. Tomas; former directors Joseph Donato Pangilinan, Miguel Romero, Floro Oliveros and Ramon Durano; former SEVP Armando Samia and Rolando Geronimo; and former senior assistant vice president Perla Soleta since the case against them was filed after they had left the service.

Ombudsman investigators have found the loans to be behest for being under-collateralized and for having a recipient corporation that is undercapitalized.

The loan deal was also found to have direct or indirect endorsement from high government officials as shown by their marginal notes in the loan request.

Investigators have also found evidence of loan misuse and of undue facilitation of its release by bank officials.

Two months ago, the anti-graft agency ordered the filing of graft cases against the respondents and some private individuals, including Ongpin, before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the behest loans.