Yasay slams ways of banking officials

Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr. on Sunday lambasted officials of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for “flagrantly and illegally railroading” the liquidation of the closed Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank.

Yasay, Banco Filipino vice chairman, also sought the help of President Benigno Aquino III and the Senate in investigating the supposed arbitrariness by which the BSP, the Monetary Board (MB) and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) sold the assets of banks shut down by the central bank “at ridiculous prices.”

It is a “disgraceful racket of the banking regulator of giving assets of closed banks to their favored constituents at fire sale prices,” Yasay said in an e-mailed statement.

He said the action of BSP and MB officials was tantamount to “grabbing the valuable land and other assets of the bank in violation of the constitutional protection against depriving anyone of property without due process.”

According to Yasay, BSP officials had been abusing their “extraordinary powers” by not allowing affected banks to participate in the disposition of their properties and remaining assets.

He said this scenario happened to Orient Bank and Urban Bank which ceased to operate after declaring a bank holiday several years ago.

Said Yasay: “These assets are sold at ridiculous prices way below their current fair market value favoring certain influential individuals or to whoever the BSP, at its sole discretion, wants to give these assets to.”

“It is for this reason that I urgently call upon the President and the members of Congress to investigate this scandal and travesty of justice,” he said.

The former SEC chairman also accused the central bank of “unlawfully leaking to (the) media” certain “rumors and false information” which, he said, led to a bank run that eventually caused the closure of Banco Filipino.

Yasay also assailed the BSP, MB and their lawyers for their supposed failure to comply with a Jan. 27 order of the Court of Appeals which directed the central bank to reopen Banco Filipino and provide it with a P25-billion financial rehabilitation package.