‘Surprised’ DBP chair sued for graft by bank COO

DBP chairman Jose A. Nuñez. Photo by dbp.ph

Comes now a surprise twist in the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) story of the controversial loan of businessman Roberto Ongpin.

A senior officer of DBP on Wednesday filed graft and criminal charges against the bank’s chairman, accusing him of coercing witnesses to testify against Ongpin for an allegedly behest loan.

The complaints were filed in the Office of the Ombudsman against DBP chairman Jose A. Nuñez by Edgardo Garcia, the bank’s senior executive vice president and chief operating officer.

In a 21-page complaint, Garcia said Nuñez—a political ally of President Benigno Aquino III’s supporter, Salvador “Buddy” Zamora—violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees for his acts of “grave coercion.”

Garcia, a career DBP officer, has been with the state bank since 1996.

Nuñez was accused of employing “unlawful coercions, threats, intimidation and pressures” against witnesses during the investigation of the alleged behest loan, which was said to have led to the suicide of DBP lawyer Benjamin Pinpin last month.

Manufactured evidence

Garcia accused Nuñez of being motivated by his “obsession to manufacture evidence against Ongpin and former DBP president Reynaldo G. David, which several officials and employees of the bank could not stomach.”

Garcia said Nuñez forced him to execute a “spurious and false” sworn statement meant to pin down David.

“Amid all the threats and intimidations, with the truth on our side, I refused to commit falsehood as dictated/coerced by respondent,” Garcia said.

He added that, had he agreed to sign such an affidavit, he may have spared 19 other bank officials and employees from what he said was Nuñez’s “harassment,” but decided against it.

Bid to muddle issue

Garcia asked the Ombudsman to suspend Nuñez pending the resolution of the complaint against him “to prevent him from influencing witnesses and tampering with evidence.”

In a press statement, Nuñez said he was “taken by surprise” by what he termed as a “clear attempt to muddle the issue which only involves the question of whether past DBP officials have failed to safeguard P660 million worth of public funds loaned to Ongpin.”

“There was never any case of  ‘unlawful coercion, threats, intimidation and pressures’ as claimed by Garcia,” the DBP chairman added.

“The facts and documents in the case of graft filed in relation to the alleged P660-million behest loans to Ongpin’s Delta Ventures Resources Inc. will show that David and Garcia connived to pass the behest nature of the loan to the Ongpin companies,” he added.

The bank’s primary mandate is to extend developmental financing, but Ongpin’s defenders say the DBP also has a universal banking license to grant commercial loans.

Garcia said he decided to finally file the case to prevent another death among the bank employees who may not have the stamina to fight the “obsession or penchant” of Nuñez and some board directors to persecute the old DBP board and Ongpin.

“In retrospect, had I succumbed to respondent’s tormenting/abusive passion and compulsion for me to execute a spurious and false sworn statement stating that president R.G. David ‘muscled’ management to recommend and the Board to approve Ongpin’s transactions, I could have spared some 19 persons from the sufferings, harassment and intimidation spawned by the psychotic show cause letters, and Atty. Benjamin E. Pinpin, a young and promising lawyer, would still be alive to pursue his dreams,” he said.

Obsession

Garcia also said that the transactions with Ongpin were fully secured with collateral, and that the DBP even earned P9.3 million in interest income and profited P1.3 billion from the sale of the Philex shares.

But he said that when the new DBP board came in August 2010, Nuñez showed interest in Ongpin and his companies’ transactions, and had the loans audited.

“It is evident that the underlying motive of the investigation launched by the Respondent was his obsession to find evidence of anomaly,” Garcia said.

When none was found, he said Nuñez had suspected 20 officers and employees of having participated in Ongpin’s transactions and had insisted that they were influenced into approving it by David.

No witch-hunt

Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz on Wednesday twitted Ongpin’s lawyer, Alex Poblador, for claiming that Malacañang’s decision to disclose the details of Ongpin’s loan was part of a “witch-hunt.”

Cadiz said the “declassification” of documents about Ongpin’s loan was just consistent with President Aquino’s anticorruption  drive. He said the presidential directive could be the “final nail on the coffin” in connection with the graft case.

He said if Poblador was really confident that Ongpin’s previous transactions with the DBP were all legal, “why are they afraid of the declassification of the DBP documents?”

“If he (Ongpin) has done nothing wrong, he should welcome the (President’s decision). Why be afraid if it will exonerate him?” Cadiz said. With reports from Leila B. Salaverria and Marlon Ramos