Lawmaker: DBP lent money to Ongpin-owned firm without loan application

Thursday, November 10, 2011
SENATOR Sergio Osmeña III said on Thursday that the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) lent a company owned by former Marcos trade minister Roberto Onpin around P3.8 billion even though the businessman did not ask for the money.
Osmena, chairman of the Senate committee on banks, said DBP released $90 million to Global Air Services Ltd. (GAS) in December 2008 even though the company did not file a loan application.
GAS then used the money to “buy securities related to the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), including those held by two other companies, Ashmore and Presidio, both linked to Ongpin,” the senator said.
He said the loan was approved even if GAS did not have a license to do business in the Philippines and had just $2 to its name.
Alex Poblador, Ongpin’s lawyer, has denied this, saying Osmena’s accusation has “absolutely no basis.”
“Senator Osmena is misinformed,” he said.
The loan to GAS was first mentioned by Panfilo Lacson on August 15 when he called for a Senate probe into a $180-million loan that the company got from DBP and the Land Bank of the Philippines. He said that when the loan was granted, GAS had net losses of $403,509 and a liability of $408,871 against $5,463 in assets and a paid-up capital of just $2.
“How did it get a loan of $90 million? And how was it granted?” he said then.
Osmena called the transaction “too cocky and reckless.”
“This is criminal, outrageous and utterly brazen, with the participants casually breaking several laws as if they do not exist. They used public money to buy assets for themselves and from themselves. It is Philex all over again,” Osmeña said.
He was referring to a P66-million loan the DBP granted Ongpin-owned Delta Venture Resources Inc. in 2009 to buy stocks in Philex Mining for P12.75 per share. Those shares were later sold to businessman Manuel Pangilinan at P21 apiece.
The Senate blue ribbon committee and the committee on banks have been conducting an inquiry into the P660-million loan that were allegedly behest, or approved because of pressure from influential people. The inquiry will resume on Monday morning and Ongpin is expected to attend the hearing.
At the October 7 hearing on the DBP loans, it was found that the loan was approved quickly–a second tranche of P510 million was approved on the same day–and that they had been granted despite deviations from normal procedure. Former DBP president Reynaldo David said, however, that the quick approval of loan applications is not unusual.
Ongpin, through his lawyer, has also denied any irregularities in the loans. He said the P660-million loans were “fully secured, and fully paid ahead of time.” He added the DBP made “more than P9 million in interest income and more than P1.3 billion in trading gains” from the transaction.
Osmeña said he would “delve deeper” in to the loan to GAS when the Senate resumes its inquiry.(Jonathan de Santos/Sunnex)
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2011/11/10/lawmaker-dbp-lent-money-ongpin-owned-firm-without-loan-application-1898

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Manila Sales Office
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