‘Yasay misinforms on P350-M BF loan’

Former Central Bank of the Philippines Governor Jose Cuisia Jr. on Thursday refuted claims by former Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. that he is not liable for P350 million worth of alle gedly illegally transacted loans at Banco Filipino.

In a broadcast interview, Cuisia said Yasay was already a board director at the closed bank in 2010 when the central bank transmitted an examination report directing management to rectify Banco Filipino’s violation of banking laws.

This comes after Yasay was detained last week over the alleged violation of banking laws on loans made by Banco Filipino from 2003 to 2006. The former DFA chief asserted he should not have been arrested or charged since the loans were granted before he joined the bank in 2009 as member of the board.

However, police records show Yasay failed to report to BSP the approval of P350 million worth of loans by Banco Filipino to Tierrasud Incorporated, owned by Tropical Land Corp. which had 1.8 percent shares in the shuttered bank.

“There is a requirement that loans to stockholders owning more than 1 percent of the stockholdings of the bank must be reported to the central which they failed to do,” Cuisia said. “There were two directives sent to the board of Banco Filipino and they did not respect or heed the directives of the monetary board.”

A second report of examination was sent to Banco Filipino’s board in September 2010, Cuisia said.

“The bank was closed finally in 2011 so they had so much time to comply,” said Cuisia. “He should read the manual regulations of bank (it) is very specific. They must report it to the Monetary board. And he’s a lawyer, so he should know.”

The former central bank governor also said the regulator offered to reopen Banco Filipino after a 1991 Supreme Court decision favored the shuttered bank but that Tomas Aguirre, father of Banco Filipino president Anthony Aguirre, refused to pay the central bank’s P3 billion emergency loan.

“Tommy Aguirre wanted to pay at the end of 10 years with no interest, which of course is clearly way out of the monetary board and I did not agree to those terms,” said Cuisia. “I was not even asking full payment of the loan, I said 50 percent and the balance over 5 years with interest.”