DEVELOPMENT Bank of the Philippines (DBP) Chairman Jose A. Nuñez is facing graft and two other criminal charges before the Office of the Ombudsman for threatening or pressuring some officials of the state-owned lender in his attempt to pin down businessman Roberto V. Ongpin in the so-called “behest loan” controversy.
Aside from violation of Section 3(a) of Republic Act (RA) 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Nuñez was also charged with grave coercion and violation of Section 4(c) of RA 6713, otherwise known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
In a 21-page complaint filed on Wednesday by DBP senior executive vice president and chief operating officer Edgardo F. Garcia, Nuñez was accused of employing “unlawful coercions, threats, intimidation and pressures” against witnesses during the investigation of the behest loan case, which resulted in the suicide of DBP lawyer Benjamin Pinpin on Aug. 2, 2011.
Garcia said Nuñez was motivated by his “obsession to manufacture” evidence against Ongpin and former DBP president Reynaldo G. David.
“This fixation ignited the tragic suicide of a co-employee, Atty. Benjamin Pinpin, who could no longer live out/bear the stresses generated by the actions of the respondent [Nuñez],” Garcia said.
In his complaint, Garcia also sought the suspension of Nuñez pending resolution of the cases filed against him to prevent him from influencing witnesses or tampering with evidence.
Taking up the cudgels for victims of intimidation and harassment at the DBP, Garcia said he decided to sue Nuñez before the Ombudsman’s office to avoid a repeat of what happened to Pinpin, whose family continues to grieve his untimely and tragic death.
Pinpin, one of the DBP’s documentation lawyers, claimed in a suicide letter on July 27 that he chose to end his life than see his family suffer humiliation for some issues he was forced to admit in an affidavit.
“I am constrained to bring this action against respondent, who has persistently/personally harassed, threatened and intimidated 20 officers/lowly employees, less one who died, in his mania to find, and if nothing found, to cause/create evidence/faults of the previous board and president of the DBP with the hope of averting another casualty/death from amongst the 19 officers/employees who may have no stamina to fight the obsession or penchant of Chairman Nuñez and some DBP Board of Directors to persecute the old board and Ongpin,” Garcia said.
“Amidst all the threats and intimidations, with the truth on our side, I refused to commit falsehood as dictated/coerced by respondent,” he added.
Just like Pinpin, Garcia said he was also forced by Nuñez to execute “a spurious and false” sworn statement stating that former DBP president David “muscled” management to recommend the approval of Ongpin’s transactions with the bank.
Had he succumbed to what he described as Nuñez’s “tormenting/abusive passion and compulsion,” Garcia said, he “could have spared 19 persons from the sufferings, harassments and intimidations spawned by the psychotic show cause letters, and Atty. Benjamin E. Pinpin, a young and promising lawyer, would still be alive to pursue his dreams.”
