SENATE probers are still looking for the “behestor” who facilitated the so-called behest loans that the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) gave former Trade Minister Roberto Ongpin to buy block shares in Philex Mining and Petron, among others, according to Sen. Serge Osmeña.

“If there is a behest there must be a behestor,” Osmeña observed during a recent interview with ANC News, giving an update on the ongoing Senate inquiry being conducted by the Committee on Banks and the blue-ribbon committee into the P660-million DBP loan Ongpin took out to buy 50 million Philex shares at P12.75 each which he then sold to businessman Manny Pangilinan at P21 per share.

Osmeña maintained that based on their initial findings, the DBP, under its former president Rey David, “deviated from prudent and safe banking practices” in extending the loan to a company that was “undercapitalized and undercollateralized.”

“David can go to jail for this,” Osmeña said as he noted that Ongpin took out at least seven loans from DBP to buy block shares of blue-chip companies that “could not have been done without a backer.”

The senator told ANC they are waiting for Ongpin to appear at the next hearing so he could answer Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s charges that Ongpin and Pangilinan “already had a deal before Ongpin bought the Philex shares.”

He added that the joint Senate inquiry “will [also] be looking into other loans” used to bankroll takeover bids in other companies amid indications that these were marked by “deviations from prudent banking policies.”

This developed after Senate probers suspended last week their joint inquiry into the alleged DBP behest loans until Ongpin, who is on a business trip to Europe, comes back to the country.

Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chief prober in the DBP behest-loan inquiry, indicated they would likely wait until Ongpin comes back by October 25.

But Guingona agreed with Osmeña’s suggestion to also invite at the hearing officials of the UK-based Ashmore group, which partnered with Ongpin in buying Petron shares with funds partly sourced also from DBP loans.

“Was there a pattern of accommodating certain groups whenever there is a takeover bid for blue-chip companies?” Guingona wanted to know.

He noted that the government-owned DBP appears to be “spending a large amount of its funds for big businessmen.”

DBP officials claimed, however, that lending money to wealthy businessmen like Ongpin was covered by its license as a universal bank.

“But how much of its funds are lent to big business and how much is left to small industries?” Guingona wondered.