Businessman Roberto Ongpin stood by the integrity of the documents he submitted to the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) that allowed him to obtain loans totaling P610 million in 2009, which the new DBP management claimed was obtained under unusual circumstances.

On the supposed losses that Deltaventures Resources Inc. (DVRI) sustained but which did not prevent the business from obtaining the loan, Ongpin said these were unrealized losses resulting from an accounting treatment known as marking-to-market.

Marking-to-market was first mandated in 1998 and required holding companies like DVRI to reflect in their books the actual value of their holdings so that investors are made aware as to whether the business has posted gains or losses.

“Everybody knows there was a stock-market crash in 2008. Thus, all holding companies [including DVRI] which are required for accounting purposes to mark-to-market their holdings had to record the losses accordingly,” Ongpin said.

What’s important, he added, was by the following year or in 2009 when the stock market rebounded, “DVRI was able to regain what it lost” in 2008.

In 2009, the year when DVRI obtained the loans from DBP, its net worth was already more than P1 billion, Ongpin said.

“We have filings with the Bureau of Internal Revenue that clearly prove this point,” he said.

The former trade minister also reiterated he complied with the requirements set by DBP in 2009 when he asked for a loan. He said he would not have known that the accommodation would be approved in just a day as the new DBP management has alleged.

“I am also not privy if, indeed, the approval by the said three collegial bodies in DBP occurred in one day. I only know that our loan process was not completed in one day. We followed the process and submitted all the requirements asked of us. That said, I am not surprised that the approval of DVRI’s loan was relatively quick,” he said.

According to Ongpin, the whole thing was a trading transaction.

“And as any trader would know, in a trading transaction, time is of the essence. Second, DVRI already had a prior credit history with DBP. I would like to think that the due diligence on the creditworthiness of DVRI as well as all the Know-Your-Customer requirements were completed before the first loan was approved on May 18, 2009.”