What Went Before: Binondo Central Bank

In July 1987, the government brought suit against Roberto V. Ongpin, trade minister in the government of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, accusing him of amassing some P1.65 million illegally through the so-called Binondo Central Bank (BCB), a group of major currency traders that was secretly organized in 1983 to provide dollars to importers, traders and large corporations needing to buy raw materials and services from abroad.

State prosecutors also asked the Sandiganbayan to order Ongpin to return the money, and pay P50 billion in moral damages and P1 billion in exemplary damages.

Also named defendants were the estate of Marcos, his widow Imelda Marcos, former Armed Forces Chief Fabian C. Ver; Ver’s children Irwin, Wyrlo and Rexor Ver, Helma Ver-Tuazon and Faida Ver-Resurreccion; eight Chinese-Filipino traders and Edna Camcam, a banker who was said to be Fabian Ver’s “special friend.”

The government alleged that the Marcos couple, Ver, Ongpin and the other defendants organized the BCB “to engage in the buying of millions of US dollars and bringing the same out of the country for deposit in foreign banks, thereby obtaining millions of dollars for themselves.”

They allegedly received the money through dummies, nominees and agents of the BCB’s financiers, “in exchange for security and protection given to said financiers, their operations, and couriers and agents.”

The BCB was organized in November 1983, when banks and financial institutions had a difficult time obtaining foreign exchange because of the crippling debt crisis that followed the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr.

Relying on the entrenched network of Chinese-Filipino businessmen, the government organized the BCB under Ongpin with a mandate to close the gap between the official guiding rate for the US dollar and the black market rate.

The official guiding rate jumped from P8 to P14 after the Aquino assassination, but the black market rate went as high as P25 as investors panicked and dollar sources dried up fast.

The BCB, through its network of small money changers nationwide, reportedly raised about $7 million to $8 million a day.

The BCB was disbanded on Feb. 26, 1986, right after the Edsa People Power Revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship. At the time, the dollar rate was reined in at P22, from the P25 at the height of the crisis.

In April 2009, Ongpin asked the Sandiganbayan to dismiss the case, saying the government had failed to prove that he had personally profited from the operation of the BCB or that such had caused grave and irreparable damage to the government.

He also claimed the BCB helped avert an economic disaster by stabilizing the plunging peso.

In December 2009, Ongpin filed a motion asking the Sandiganbayan to finally resolve the forfeiture case against him.

In an interview in December 2011, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile urged the Aquino government to make public the records of the defunct National Intelligence and Security Agency, which included, among others, details about the BCB. Inquirer Research Source: Inquirer Archives