FORMER officials of state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) said on Tuesday loans extended to Lopez-led companies were not condoned before bad debts were sold to a special purpose vehicle (SPV).
They made the statement as lawmakers resumed their probe into the alleged write off of loans worth more than a billion pesos.
Vitaliano N. Nañagas II, former DBP chairman, said in the hearing on Tuesday that he also did not write off any fees owed by the Lopez companies, after lawmakers said he was the presiding officer who absolved the loans’ interest and other fees based on a DBP board resolution.
“It might have been the inclusion of those loans in the SPV, but if you look at the (financial) books of the DBP, I don’t remember having waived anything or foregone anything,” he said.
The hearing was called by the House Committee on Good Government and Accountability.
Mr. Nañagas was chairman when the DBP approved the creation of the SPV for the loans. He added that the SPV was approved in 2002, but the actual sale was made in 2006 when he was no longer chairman.
On Tuesday, the House Blue Ribbon panel resumed its probe on the alleged condonation by the DBP of non-performing assets worth P1.6 billion of the Lopez companies. In the panel’s past hearings, bank officials said no write-off was made but a sale under the SPV Act.
The non-performing loans were sold to the Asia-Pacific arm of defunct investment bank Lehman Brothers.
The loans were extended to four companies, which at that time were all led by the Lopezes. The companies are Bayan Telecommunications, Inc., Maynilad Water Service, Inc., Central CATV, Inc., and Benpres Holdings Corp.
Also invited in the hearing was Remedios Macalinag, former DBP president and vice-chairman, who said no loan write-off was made when she was in office from 1998 to 2002.
“There was no condonation or write off of these accounts during my term in DBP,” she said.
According to the panel’s chairman, DIWA Party-list Rep. Michael Edgar Y. Aglipay, Ms. Macalinag’s name was the one submitted by the current DBP legal team as the member of the board who approved the loans granted to the Lopez companies.
Ms. Macalinag was head of the lender when she approved the Maynilad loan, which was dollar-denominated and accounted for the largest extended by the DBP at P700 million at that time in the local currency.
Ms. Macalinag said there was no influence or preference in the approval of the loans nor was there any expedited process in their approval. — Gillian M. Cortez
