Lorenzo Tan
RCBC President and CEO Lorenzo Tan Thursday said the allegation of Maia Santos-Deguito, business manager of the bank’s Jupiter Street branch in Makati City, that he played a role in the opening and subsequent use of the banks accounts allegedly used in money laundering was “an outright lie.”
“I do not know her personally, which raises the question: ‘How can a branch manager work with a bank president who does not know her on branch level matters?” he said.
“As president of RCBC, I do not engage myself in the opening of accounts, knowing the client and his source of income among other things as required by government rules, and crediting and debiting funds. The branch manager oversees these things. I did not refer anyone to her for the opening of accounts even,” Tan said in a statement sent to the Inquirer on Thursday night.
“I did not handpick Ms Deguito. She was recommended by a friend, which is normally done everywhere. She went through the same vetting process before she was hired in late 2013. If I did not know her personally, how can I provide her guidance on how to answer a memo from management asking her to explain everything that is now coming out in the media in a level of detail that I could not have been familiar with as CEO?” he added.
Tan said Deguito was facing issues from the bank and potentially from the law.
“I will not allow her to sully my name and the reputation of the bank,” Tan said. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla