Benjamin Pinpin—the mid-level lawyer at Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) who committed suicide in August—was driven to depression after he received successive letters from the bank’s board of directors threatening imminent legal action for his role in a purportedly anomalous loan to businessman Roberto Ongpin.
According to his immediate superior at the bank, Pinpin was particularly distraught over the fact that he remained a subject of the second round of “show-cause” letters issued to some 20 DBP officers and staff, despite his having cooperated with the new board and having complied fully with the first show-cause letter sent to him in May.
“When the second show-cause letter came, that’s when his troubles really started,” DBP legal chief Benilda Tejada told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview.
The letter, dated July 21, asked some DBP officers and staff to submit “an explanation in writing and under oath why no disciplinary action should be taken against [them]” within five days from receiving the letter.
“Failure to do so would amount to a waiver of your right to submit your comments or explanation, and the administrative investigation shall proceed and be decided without your comments or explanation,” it added.
“Why am I still involved in this? I have no power to influence anything here,” Tejada quoted Pinpin as saying to her on the day he received the letter from the bank’s board.
Tejada reminded Pinpin that she and other senior DBP officials were the ones being targeted by the new board’s probe, but this failed to reassure him.
Losing sleep
In the weeks leading up to his suicide—and after he had executed his affidavit meant to supposedly cast doubt on the propriety of the transaction—the deterioration in Pinpin’s physical condition was evident, she earlier told the Inquirer.
“I asked him: ‘Benjie, why are you always absent?’ because I’m the one who approves his leave forms. ‘Why are you losing weight?’” she said, to which Pinpin replied: “I have been losing sleep for two weeks now.”
At a Senate hearing Monday, Tejada said Pinpin was not supposed to have received a show-cause letter.
Pinpin’s job description did not include direct involvement in decisions to grant loans, Tejada told senators.
Pinpin was only concerned with the documentation of loan applications and should not have been required to show cause why he should not be sanctioned for any irregular loan, she said.
Tejada, who had been working with Pinpin at DBP since 2004, earlier described the lawyer as a “quiet, simple man” whose life was devoted only around his family and his work.
“He had no barkada (buddies) and he didn’t drink,” she said. “He lived a peaceful life. Work and family were his concerns.”
She added that unlike grizzled trial lawyers, Pinpin was unaccustomed to the pressure that high-profile complaints bring.