MANILA, Philippines?A farmer?s group has filed a plunder suit before the Ombudsman against Senate President Manuel Villar and his wife, Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, for their alleged failure to repay a P1.5 billion loan with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) which led to the loss of their farmlands in Norzagaray, Bulacan.

The farmers claimed the transfer of the farm lands from Capitol Development Bank, formerly owned by the Villars, to the BSP was illegal. The contested Norzagaray property also includes a controversial sanitary landfill project that had been put on hold.
Villar?s camp was quick to refute the charge as a rehash of a similar case filed by another group of farmers on the same property which was dismissed by the Ombudsman for ?lack of merit? two years ago.

?For the record, the titles assigned to the BSP to cover Capitol Bank?s emergency loan were clean and genuine, effectively extinguishing our P1.7 billion loan from the BSP,? said Villar?s spokesperson Nalen Galang.

In a press statement, however, the farmers? lawyer, Salvador Mallana, said Capitol Development Bank (now Optimum Development Bank), had used contested titles to settle its BSP loans in 2001.

Mallana said his clients, Gina Jarvina and Valentin Amador, were among the farmers who filed a case against the BSP claiming ownership of 483,000 hectares of agricultural lands in Norzagaray.

The lawyer said the farmers only came to know of the transfer of their claimed farmlands last year, when they filed for the reconstitution of land titles that were burned in a fire that destroyed the Registry of Deeds in Norzagaray.

The farmers said the transfer of the titles to the BSP was illegal.

They decided to charge the Villars with plunder because the BSP loan to Capitol Bank exceeded P50 million.

But Villar?s spokesperson said they found it ?suspicious? that the plunder suit was filed even before the farmers established their ownership of the land.

?Who are these people? How can a second plunder case be filed by a new set of complainants against the Villars involving the same property?? said Galang.

Galang said Capitol Bank was forced to seek help from the BSP due to the Asian financial crisis which hit the country in 1997.

?In return (for the emergency loan), the bank assigned to the BSP its receivables and other collateral in the form of real estate properties,? he said.

Aside from the Villar couple, others included in the plunder suit were Capitol Bank first vice president Anacordita Magno, ODB executive vice president Arturo de los Santos and BSP managing director Andres Rustia.

Rene Carreon, BSP assistant governor for monetary operations, earlier said they were still trying to thresh out the ownership questions on the Norzagaray property so they could sell it. He revealed that they were considering selling the land back to the Villars.

Meanwhile, Villar?s problems in the southern flank of Manila concerning a controversial road project fund insertion, has sparked new calls for his replacement from the top Senate post.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, whose five-member block in the Senate?s majority coalition is being wooed by Villar?s critics, said he would study whether a leadership change in the Senate was a necessary move.

?We are studying it because it?s a very serious matter. It?s a big responsibility to change a leadership which should not be changed just because of personalities,? said Angara in an interview over dzBB radio.