Bid to reopen Banco Filipino junked

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has junked the bid of a group of depositors to reopen the Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank.

In a five-page resolution promulgated last Monday but released only yesterday, the fifth division of the appellate court dismissed the petition filed by holders of uninsured deposits, or those over P500,000.

The CA held that their intervention would only delay the resolution of the case.

“Their rights may not be fully protected, as they insist, but we are of the view that allowing the intervention of movants-intervenors, numerous as they are, will unduly delay the adjudication of the rights of the original parties,” read the ruling penned by Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario.

The depositors claimed Banco Filipino was still solvent and should not have been closed, adding that the computation of its assets should have been based on the market and not book value.

They filed the petition after the special seventh division of the CA, in a ruling on Nov. 21, 2012, affirmed the closure of the bank and ordered the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to extend financial assistance to the bank worth P25 billion.

It was a reversal of a ruling of another division of the CA dated Jan. 27, 2012, which declared illegal the closure of Banco Filipino, citing BSP’s grave abuse of discretion and violation of the bank’s right to due process.