11/21/2011
Between the Lopez group’s
reported P1.6-billion DBP (Development Bank of the Philippines) loan
write-off and the fully paid P600-million “behest” loan of Bobby Ongpin
that supposedly yielded P1.4 billion in earnings for the bank from
speculative trades in the stock market, which was the more
disadvantageous to the taxpaying public?
First, it should be clear
that all three — the DBP, as well as the Lopez and Ongpin groups —
clearly violated the purpose and spirit for which state “development”
banks are organized — that is, to provide loans for economic and
developmental activities (as opposed to those that are commercial or
speculative in nature). And since it was a case of the latter, it is
equally clear that the Lopez group has caused more grievous damage to
the ones who are ultimately supporting the DBP — the public and the
taxpayers. If the Ongpin group had lost its shirt in its speculative
play on the loaned funds, I’m sure that it would also have sought help
from its patrons for a write-off of that loan.
These are cases of “socialism for the rich,” where losses are privatized to the ordinary and mostly poor taxpayer.
Still,
whenever the oligarchs and financial sharks clash, good things can only
happen for the people. In the case of the DBP “behest” loan
controversy, what began with a tiff between the alleged kingpin of the
DBP, who got to put his man there allegedly for P300 million in campaign
donations to you-know-who, and the alleged Arroyo crony, who made
massive loans for “insider trades” in Philex Mining shares, has now
dragged other oligarchic groups into the picture.
While a number
of these cases are still successfully muted in mainstream media, we are
hoping the same kinds of behest loans and write-offs in other
state-owned banks, from the time of Cory Aquino to FVR and GMA, can also
be exposed by still hidden whistleblowers — because there certainly is a
lot more being kept under the boardroom rug. What we’re now seeing is
but the tip of the iceberg.
The DBP controversy had already
claimed one life, that of DBP lawyer Benjamin Pinpin who killed himself
last August, despondent over threats of legal action from the DBP board
in connection with the bank’s P660-million loans to businessman Bobby
Ongpin.
The Zamora camp, apparently fronting for the PeNoy
administration, traded barbs with Ongpin for the past three months,
charging the latter with obtaining the “behest loan” using FG Mike
Arroyo’s clout in the last administration.
The issue had since
been raised to the Senate, reflecting the escalation in the war; at
which point the Ongpin camp fired its major salvo through the columns of
Conrad Banal and Neal Cruz, exposing the even more shocking loan
scandals — the DBP write-offs for the Lopez businesses, as well as the
Special Purpose Asset Vehicles (SPAVs) for the Ayala and Yuchengco
banking groups.
Dragged into the fray, the Lopez group hastily
issued a rejoinder charging that the two Inquirer columns are but a PR
muddling campaign from Ongpin’s camp.
True or not, I believe the
public is still happy that this apparently very well-kept dirty secret
has been brought out into the open; and, indeed, it tends to show the
Lopez group’s alleged predilection for alleged shenanigans that result
in billions of losses for the Filipino taxpayers under the guise of its
“legitimate” businesses.
The Lopezes’ defense is that their
P1.6-billion loan write-off can be justified by their losses in the
privatized water system they invested in (Maynilad), as well as in their
other interests such as Central CATV, Bayantel, and Benpres Holdings.
Question is, why was credit earmarked for development channeled to
undeniably commercial projects, whereby losses were passed on to the
taxpayer?
The DBP-Ongpin imbroglio is a blessing in disguise for
the Filipino people. It’s a chance to awaken the nation to the
essentially corrupt character of our ruling elite, particularly the
oligarchs.
The episode has provided a unique educational
opportunity by focusing the nation’s eyes on the favorite (i.e. crony)
family corporations of the Yellow era that have always been behind the
Yellow movement, whether through funding coups such as Edsa II or
perpetrating stinky Peace Bonds-type deals.
On a broader level, it
highlights the captive status of government financial institutions,
like many other agencies, invariably doing the bidding of the oligarchs
and conspiratorially hiding their shenanigans from the public.
With
a little more explaining, the public can be made to understand that all
capital really comes from them and that the ruling class only usurps
these national assets for itself through its control of government.
When
the Lopez group got caught in the mire, a senator married to a Lopez
who heads the Senate committee on energy, charged into the scene. That’s
when I harkened back to my first prize win in a high school speaking
contest for “Charge of the Light Brigade” by Lord Alfred Tennyson as I
saw “Serge of the Light Brigade” charge into the investigation of Bobby
Ongpin.
Strangely, in spite of being in hot pursuit of that
gargantuan loan, Serge Osmeña doesn’t seem to show any concern for the
DBP’s losses from the Lopez group’s much staggering loan write-off. In
fact, he now even raises another allegation: That Ongpin owns another
company named GAS (Global Air Services) that borrowed $90 million to buy
the Mertro Rail Transit (MRT), a charge that the former Trade minister
flatly denies.
Well, now that another scandal is brewing, will the
oligarch groups that have joined the buying spree on the MRT come
forward as well? Abangan…
(Tune in to Sulo ng Pilipino/Radyo
OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL,
Saturday, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable
Channel 8, on “Banking Cronyism, Behest Loans and Alternatives”; visit
http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus TV and radio
archives)
(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu-Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL:
http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111121com5.html
