Osmeña threatens to jail Ongpin aide for snubbing hearings
Senator Sergio Osmeña III on Monday threatened to jail Josephine Manalo, the personal secretary of businessman Roberto Ongpin, for her continuous refusal to appear at the Senate hearings to explain her role in Ongpin’s various companies.
“If Manalo fails to appear on Monday, then she can spend Christmas in jail, kung ayaw niyang mag-testigo,” Osmeña said.
Manalo has consistently cited health reasons for her failure to attend the Senate hearings.
Osmeña, chairman of the Senate banks, financial institutions and currencies committee, said Manalo “owns 99.9 percent of the (shares of) stock of practically all the corporations (believed to be owned by) Bobby Ongpin.”
“We want to ask her since she is the majority owner and entering into multibillion peso deals, we want to know… Because there are about 25 Ongpin-owned or -affiliated corporations. I can’t remember, it’s so many so I would like to ask as personal secretary (how this happened),” Osmeña said in an interview in his Senate office on Monday.
Asked whether he thought Manalo had acted as a dummy for Ongpin, Osmeña said, “Yeah.”
Osmeña said he had often been confronted with details showing that Manalo was the owner of shares of stock that were believed to be Ongpin’s.
A document obtained by Osmeña’s office showed Manalo was chairperson of Boerstar Corp., Deltaventure Resources Inc., Compact Holdings Inc., Elkhound Resources Inc., Labilab Corp., Bacong Highlands Realty Inc., Beckel Realty Inc., Itogon Realty Inc., Sunrise Sunset Island Corp., Tocmo Realty Corp., Dominion Equities Inc. and Philweb Asia Pacific Corp.
Manalo is also a board member of RVO Capital Ventures Inc., Atok-Big Wedge Co. Inc., ISM Communications, G.A.M.E. Equities, Inc., PremyosaResibo and Philweb Leisure and Tourism Co.
“Since (Ongpin) is not a member of the board (of the corporations believed to be his), not even one share, but he is able to call banks and ask for loans,” the senator said.
Osmeña said Manalo was supposed to appear at a Senate executive session yesterday but did not turn up.
So far, the Senate blue ribbon and banks committees have held three hearings in connection with the behest loan and insider trading accusations against Ongpin.
Manalo did not show up at the second and third hearings.
4th hearing Tuesday
Her failure to appear in the executive session on Monday forced Osmeña and blue ribbon chairman Senator Teofisto Guingona III to circulate an order to be signed by the members of both committees compelling Manalo to appear at an executive session on Monday. The Senate committees will hold its fourth hearing on the case this morning.
Former Finance Secretary Margarito Teves has been invited to explain how Global Air Services (GAS), an Ongpin-affiliated company, got a $180 million syndicated loan from two government banks in 2008 despite lacking the required papers.
Osmeña said the Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines granted the huge loan to GAS which he described as “a company registered in the British Virgin Islands but which has no financial capacity to borrow.”
Authorized signatory
Osmeña said Manalo was the authorized signatory on the loan agreements with the DBP and Land Bank.
He said GAS used the loans to buy stocks and bonds related to the Metro Rail Transit Corp. (MRTC), including those held by two other companies, Presidio Capital Holdings Ltd. and Ashmore which also have alleged links to Ongpin.
“Secretary Teves has some explaining to do before the committees. Documents show that he authorized the grant of the $180 million to GAS in 2008. The approval of this loan was not only unusual, but was also outrageously irregular. Only in the Philippines would a bank process and approve a loan for a still unknown borrower,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña said Teves as finance secretary was also ex-officio chairman of Land Bank in 2008 when the questionable multimillion-dollar loan was granted to GAS.
