NOR ARROYO HAND IN DBP LOAN
[Photo
- FORMER TRADE MINISTER, NOW BUSINESS MAN ROBERTO ONGPIN]
MANILA,
NOVEMBER 16,
2011 (TRIBUNE) By Angie M. Rosales - Controversial
businessman Roberto Ongpin appeared before the Senate yesterday to clear former
First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo from involvement in his securing an
alleged P660-million behest loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines
(DBP) to acquire 50 million shares of Philex Mining Corp. (Philex) in 2009.
The former trade minister told Senate probers that the accusations against
him were baseless, adding that no powerful government official or individual
intervened in the transactions he made with the DBP through his company Delta
Ventures Resources Inc. (DVRI), hinting that he is being conveniently being used
to go after another person "and I was in a manner of speaking, only a convenient
target."
Alongside this development however, Senate probers said former DBP officials
led by former DBP president Reynaldo David could be facing plunder charges, on
top of the possible graft case arising from the alleged questionable loans to
Ongpin.
Raised during yesterday's Senate inquiry was the grant of a DBP loan to
another alleged Ongpin-led firm to buy securities related to the Metro Rail
Transit (MRT) in 2008.
Appearing for the first time before the joint investigating panels, the blue
ribbon and banks committees, Ongpin admitted that the former First Gentleman is
indeed his friend for quite sometime, dating back when now Pampanga Rep. Gloria
Arroyo was elected president.
"Friendship does not mean that I was his crony nor that I fronted for him in
any of my investment banking deals, much less the deal at hand. It might come as
a surprise to my distinguished detractors from DBP that I do not need a
'behestor' in order to do a deal. Perhaps it is the distinguished gentlemen from
DBP that now require a 'behestor' when they make a loan, certainly not Mr. David
nor the previous DBP management," he said.
Ongpin said in defending the DBP deal that "every bank, not only in the
Philippines, not only government-owned banks, are always on the lookout and are
eager to do loan transactions with credit worthy individuals or companies."
This is the way all banks make money and the most successful banks are the
ones who make the largest loans that are successfully repaid, he added.
Ongpin volunteered his knowledge of how banks operate. "They source cheap
funding from deposits and lend to credit-worthy borrowers in order to make a
spread and therefore a profit. I am sorry to have to say this but the truth is
in my entire investment banking career, neither I nor my clients, have ever
defaulted on any loan here or abroad and that is the simple fact," he said.
He denied having conspired with DBP on these loans and due to the behest of
Mike Arroyo. "I should emphasize that I have been doing investment banking deals
after I have left government in 1986," Ongpin said, adding that the largest
deals were during the time of President Cory Aquino when he convinced Robert
Kuok to invest in the Philippines.
Kuok is a Hong Kong-based Malaysian businessman who is into real estate and
several other businesses including the operations of Hong Kong's largest
newspaper, South China Morning Post.
I believe that Mr. Kuok, who is one of my closest friends, is the largest
single investor in this country today when one considers the present market
value of his investments, Ongpin said.
He stressed that he continued to make investment banking deals under every
President after President Cory, naming the the terms of President Ramos,
President Estrada and President. Arroyo. "None of these deals involved any
irregularities, nor the need for any 'behest', and all these deals brought
substantial contribution to the Philippine economy and provided employment to
many thousands of our countrymen," Ongpin told the senators.
David corroborated Ongpin's claims that he did not use any dummies in
securing the loans for the acquisition of the Philex shares, backing assertions
made by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile that the loan would have gone through
even if the businessman did not get himself involved in the deal.
David admitted that in the course of the transaction, he was told that Ongpin
was the beneficial owner of DVRI, "because we've been discussing it with Mr.
Ongpin."
Enrile noted that Ongpin's name did not appear in the corporate papers of
DVRI, not even as a shareholder or a board member although David claimed that
the businessman was the general manager of the company.
"Did he come to you for the application of DVRI for loan of that magnitude
for DBP and told you that I am the owner of DVRI? That it was because of that he
was the one that negotiated the loan?" Enrile asked to which David answered in
the affirmative.
The former DBP president said that DVRI executives were the ones involved in
transactions, denying allegations that Ongpin negotiated the terms and
conditions of the loan.
"If they did, then what was the purpose of Ongpin being in the picture,"
asked Enrile.
"Because we know that he's the beneficial owner, we felt that the credit
integrity will be there," David retorted.
"At the risk of being branded again by a certain distinguished columnist of
engaging in 'braggadocio,' the truth is that I have been involved in over P200
billion worth of investment banking transactions in the Philippines, and a
multiple of that, in my investment banking transactions abroad. Truth to tell,
the DBP-DVRI loans are (to use a favorite term of the distinguished gentlemen
from DBP) 'puny' compared to the other deals that I have done. It doesn't give
me a great deal of pleasure having to make the foregoing statement but I have no
other choice. I simply have to defend myself," Ongpin said.
David said Ongpin's DVRI used as collateral its shares in Philweb, another
company that Ongpin controls with a market value of over P1 billion.
"So much disinformation has been sown that many quarters have been deluded by
this concept of 'opportunity trading loss.' And in so doing, these DBP
'geniuses' have simply chosen to ignore the straightforward opinion of the
highest regulatory body relevant to the issue at hand, the Bangko Sentral, that
these loans were totally regular and caused no injury to DBP and in fact had the
opposite effect of making an enormous amount of money for the bank," he said.
In a word, unlike in so many other loans made by DBP which were in fact
behest and which have defaulted and undoubtly caused injury to the bank, these
loans to DVRI were fully collateralized, paid on time and made tons of money for
DBP, Ongpin said.
"There simply is no basis in any way, shape or form to conclude that there
was 'insider trading' in these transactions. The fact that the sellers, myself
and DBP's Mr. David, and the buyer, Mr. (Manuel) Pangilinan, were all on the
board of Philex can never be a basis for the allegation that there was insider
trading," he added.
Insider trading is when a buyer or a seller uses information relating to its
corporate business, not available to everyone else, to engage in transactions
for their own benefit.
"The simple fact is that, starting in 2007, I had come to the conclusion that
Philex shares were undervalued and started accumulating them and eventually
totalling to about 7.5 percent of the company, which I financed, through equity
and borrowings and, I emphasize, not just from DBP," Ongpin said.
Onpin said in addition to his personal equity capital, he borrowed some P4
billion from six financial institutions other than DBP over three years to
finance the acquisition of the Philex shares.
"Thus, the total financing I acquired from DBP was less than 17 percent of my
total borrowings. To infer therefore, as the distinguished gentlemen from DBP
have done, that I have somehow organized a 'sweetheart' loan from DBP is simply
preposterous," he said.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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