CRONY-OWNED or not, private corporations and their wealthy owners should be barred from dipping their hands into the loan portfolio of state banks to avoid a repeat of the alleged P660-million behest loan granted by Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to former Marcos trade minister Roberto Ongpin.
Sen. Ralph G. Recto yesterday said there would still be behest loans that could be obtained in the near future from state-owned banks like the DBP and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) unless a policy reform is adopted by state banking regulators.
“Loan money from these state-owned banks would have better use if placed in an exclusive credit window for the agriculture sector and SMEs (small-medium enterprises),” Recto, Senate ways and means chair and senior member of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization (AFMA), said.
According to Recto, DBP and LandBank should be barred from extending loans to big corporate clients and instead be mandated to facilitate easy loan downloads for growing segments of the agriculture, fisheries and the SME sectors. Marlon Purificacion
The senator pointed out big corporate clients could always turn to their preferred private commercial banks for credit or additional capital as a consequence of the “loan blockade.”
Recto stressed that this was really among the mandates of the DBP and LBP, which was to offer cheap loans to farmers, fisherfolks and small entrepreneurs but have not been fully implemented.
