SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile has referred to blue-ribbon committee probers earlier findings by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on alleged insider trading violation by former Trade Minister Roberto V. Ongpin involving the block sale in 2009 of shares of Philex Mining Corp. where Ongpin sat as director and vice chairman.
“I forwarded it [SEC findings] to the Blue Ribbon; pati mga documents, madaming documents na pinadala sa akin eh. I requested the materials. But I have no chance to read it,” Enrile told reporters on the eve of Friday’s Committee inquiry into the reported P660- million “behest” loans from the Development Bank of the Philippines that Ongpin’s company Delta Ventures used to pay part of the Philex shares purchase.
This developed as Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, blue-ribbon chairman, said the Committee hearings will determine possible amendments “not only on banking laws, but especially on the charters of the DBP, LandBank and other government financial institutions.”
Guingona and Sen. Serge Osmeña, banks committee chairman, are conducting a joint inquiry into the alleged large-scale financial transactions involving behest loans extended by the DBP to different private companies reportedly connected to Ongpin.
In a statement, Guingona recalled that DBP Chairman Jose Nuñez and President Francisco del Rosario Jr. filed on Aug. 5, 2011, criminal and administrative cases against the DBP’s past board of directors, led by President Reynaldo David, in connection with the P660-million “behest loans” that the bank granted to Ongpin’s company, Delta Ventures Resources Inc. (DVRI), to finance the latter’s acquisition of Philex Mining shares that, the senator said, were subsequently sold at “an astonishingly high price.”
Guingona confirmed that the joint committee inquiry required the appearance of Ongpin, former DBP board members led by David, and several bank officials to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the approval of these highly questionable loan transactions.
He added that aside from possible violations of banking laws, Senate probers would also look into the “possible insider trading and violation of Securities Code because the half-billion peso loans granted to Ongpin were used to buy DBP’s 50-million shares in Philex Mining Corp. at P12.75 per share and subsequently sold to the group of Manuel Pangilinan at P21.00 per share, or more than triple the purchase price. At the time of the sale, Ongpin and David were also both directors of Philex.”
According to the Senator, the hearings would also find out, among others, why the DBP, as the seller, agreed to receive credit instead of outright cash and why Golden Media, another firm associated with Ongpin, was added as a third party in what could have just been a straight and simple loan transaction between DBP and DVRI.
“Was the bank unduly exposed to any risk and did DBP violate any banking rule or favor a borrower to the detriment of the bank’s depositors and the taxpayers?” asked Guingona.
According to Enrile, he was informed that the SEC had “suspended the capacity of the corporation [Delta Ventures] to operate because they did not comply with the reporting requirement for their financial condition and their officers.”
“They did not submit a general information sheet for their officers and they have not submitted any financial statement to the SEC about their financial condition so they were suspended as a corporation only to be revived in one day. Magic on the wall. Done in one day,” Enrile added.
