Ongpin sues top DBP officials for libel
For portraying him as “greedy and dishonest,” businessman Roberto V. Ongpin on Thursday filed libel and graft charges against Development Bank of the Philippines chairman Jose Nuñez Jr. and president Francisco del Rosario.
Ongpin accused the two DBP officials, along with their counsel, Zenaida Ongkiko-Acorda, and “certain other” board members of conspiring to malign him in connection with alleged “behest loans” totaling P660 million the bank had extended to the businessman’s Delta Ventures Resources Inc. (DVRI).
“I was maligned and maliciously portrayed as an untrustworthy, greedy and dishonest person who would exert influence upon government officials and who will resort to illegal and underhanded means just to further my interest,” the businessman said in a 15-page complaint he filed in the Office of the Ombudsman.
Asked for comment, DBP corporate affairs head Leonora Fernandez said she had spoken with Del Rosario, who said that he had yet to see the complaint, and a reply would be made “at the appropriate time and venue.”
The DBP, under the new management appointed by President Benigno Aquino III, had questioned the propriety of DVRI’s securing the huge loan, with a paid-up capital of only P625,000 and reported losses of P98 million.
Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz earlier said that Ongpin, trade minister of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, used the loans to buy Philex Mining Corp. shares at P12.75 apiece, which he then sold to Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Group as part of a bloc at P21 per share.
Incompetent officials
The controversy reportedly led to the suicide of DBP lawyer Benjamin Pinpin who was allegedly pressured into signing an affidavit that suggested irregularities in the transactions and to implicate Ongpin and past DBP officials.
“I have spent a lifetime establishing my reputation, not only in the Philippines but also internationally, and I will not permit these malicious DBP officials to tarnish my reputation,” Ongpin said in a press statement.
“These incompetent officials, who do not even know the meaning of ‘behest loans,’ have persisted in vilifying me, and as I promised, I will not let them get away with it,” he added.
In his complaint, Ongpin, through his lawyer Alexander Poblador, charged that the DBP officials “exceeded the scope of privileged communication” when they attacked him before the media after they had filed their complaint in the Ombudsman.
“In that August 10 press release, DBP, through Acorda, categorically claimed that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas initiated the probe into the DBP loans of Ongpin’s Deltaventure Resources Inc.,” he said.
“Three days later, Acorda was placed in an obviously embarrassing position when she had to make a public about-face and admitted, in a paid advertisement, obviously at the insistence of the BSP, that the DBP, not the Bangko Sentral had initiated the investigation.”
Loans fully paid
Pointing out that only defaulted or nonperforming loans can be legally termed “behest,” Ongpin stressed that the loans had been fully paid before maturity.
“Deltaventure certainly was not a ‘puny’ corporation and had a net worth of more than P1 billion when [it] borrowed from the DBP in 2009,” he added.
“Contrary to the allegation that the loans were under collateralized, the P660-million loan of Deltaventure had a collateral of more than P1.8 billion worth of marketable securities or a collateral cover of 2.8 times.”
DBP more than doubled its investment [in the shares of Philex Mining Corp.] at the time they sold the Philex shares to him, Ongpin said, adding that “only God can foresee future market prices, and the concept of an opportunity trading loss is totally absurd.”
Promise to widow
“As promised to the widow of Atty. Benjamin Pinpin, I will not rest until these DBP officials who are responsible for causing her husband’s suicide and who have persisted in continuing to malign my reputation, have received their just punishment.” Ongpin added.
On Wednesday, the DBP senior vice president and chief operating officer, Edgardo Garcia, filed a complaint in the Office of the Ombudsman against Nuñez for allegedly trying to coerce him into pinning down former bank president Reynaldo David and Ongpin on the loan.
