BSP shuns deal with Banco Filipino

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has rejected an offer by Banco Filipino, a thrift bank that was once the country’s largest, to try to work out a settlement regarding damage claims worth P18.8 billion.
       BSP legal counsel Juan de Zuñiga Jr. reiterated on Tuesday they have no plans of coming to a negotiated settlement eventhough Banco Filipino chairman and president Teodoro O. Arcenas Jr. has offered one in a letter dated March 26 this year.
       “We continue to oppose the bank’s contention that we are the successors in interest of the old Central Bank of the Philippines,” Zuñiga told reporters on Tuesday.
       Arcenas has cited the perils of maintaining this legal stance as having been previously rejected by the courts.
       “To continue to rely on such incorrect opinion henceforth formulating the position of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in relation to damage claims of Banco Filipino may expose those who do so to certain legal risks.
       “This Monetary Board need not choose to rely on a legal opinion that has been repeatedly overruled and rejected by the courts,” Arcenas said in his letter to BSP Governor and Monetary Board chairman Amando Tetangco Jr.
       Tetangco refused to comment on the matter.
       Banco Filipino has sought restitution for damage done on the bank, which the Supreme Court itself said had been arbitrarily closed by the then Central Bank of the Philippines, under the now deceased governor Jose “Jobo” B. Fernandez.
       It frustrates Banco Filipino management that actual restitution has not been awarded despite the courts ruling in their favor, with the BSP insisting that it was not a successor in interest of the old central bank.
       Nevertheless, Arcenas said it would “still be proper for the BSP and Banco Filipino to be working out a ‘negotiated settlement.’”