Another rural bank bites the dust!

Pope Benedict XVI during his New Year’s message told his audience to be “responsible for the future… and do not hesitate to choose a lifestyle that does not follow the current hedonist mentality.” His Holiness recalling his Christmas Day message also pointed out, “If people look only to their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart.”

The Pope added, “This year concludes with the awareness of a growing economic and social crisis that now affects the entire world; a crisis that demands the greatest sobriety and solidarity of all in order to help, especially, those persons and families in the most serious difficulties… Even if there are many clouds forming on the horizon of our future, we should not be afraid. As believers, our great hope is eternal life in communion with Christ and the entire family of God. This great hope gives us the strength to face and to overcome the difficulties of this worldly life.”

I reprinted a part of the Pope’s message to the world because of the expected difficulties that many of us will face this year in the hope that our faithful flock would turn back to God, where we are all headed for regardless of race, status and beliefs. I know that 90% of Filipinos are hopeful that we can get through the coming difficulties, we can only pray for those people who will be severely affected by the crisis.

* * *

Yesterday was the first working day of the year. I thought that I would be writing about events that would strengthen the hopes of our people who are apprehensive of future events, especially when we just had a very long Christmas holiday. However, late Sunday afternoon, I got a text from a source in Manila that the Rural Bank of Subangdaku (RBS) would declare a bank holiday. I thought, what a scoop! I immediately checked with someone from Manila to verify this report and indeed, the info I got was A-one!

I checked with Managing Editor Nimrod Quinones and we agreed that we shall let Monday pass so as not to aggravate the situation and cause further panic especially with the other rural banks that are still financially sound. So yesterday morning, I drove to RBS, got down my car and took a photo of their closed doors and the notice pasted on the door. The sign declared.

“Bank Holiday Declared

Notice to all depositors: Rural Bank of Subangdaku has declared a bank holiday and has reported the same to BSP. We expect the PDIC to start servicing your deposits as soon as possible. For further inquiries please call (09207255899) –RBS-“

We wrote about mini-run that affected RBS Talisay branch last month when the rural banks of the Legacy Group declared a pre-Christmas holiday. Somehow they were able to survive that week before the official Christmas holidays. However my information was that they were already in dire straits; depositors who withdraw say P40,000 would only be requested to accept a P5,000 withdrawal, which should not be the practice. Why didn’t RBS declare a holiday right before Christmas, we don’t know. Perhaps the family of Mr. Joseph Gaisano tried a last ditch effort to infuse more funds into RBS, but to no avail.

No doubt the RBS declaration of a bank holiday would send ripples within the Rural Bank industry; Rural Bankers Association or the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) need to come forward to reassure their depositors that the other Rural Banks still operating are financially sound.

Incidentally I was reading the front page story of The Freeman yesterday that a businessman from Subangdaku, Mandaue City was robbed of P2 million at gunpoint by still unidentified robbers. If that businessman Mr. Rolando Mioza had a chance to deposit his money in RBS, he would still end up losing his money just the same! What an irony it would have been!

This incident once more brings us to question the BSP officials on how thorough they check out Rural Banks. Are they like the folks at the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) who looks after the interest of the owners of the vehicles for hire rather than their passengers or commuters?

I was with a group of friends for breakfast yesterday morning when I announced that RBS was going to declare a holiday. It turned out that one of my friends is a Director of RBS and it was the first time he knew this. This shows that RBS wasn’t following sound banking practice. Once more, BSP should tell us what’s the real score with RBS!