FORMER Trade and Industry Minister Roberto Ongpin has finally appeared at the ongoing Senate investigation on the alleged “behest” loans given to his companies by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and flatly denied he was favored with the loans for being a “friend” and a “front” of former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

“The (P660 million) loan granted to me by DBP cannot be labeled as ‘behest’ because  no powerful official intervened for the extension of the loan, and  the loan was fully collateralized and fully paid long before their maturity dates,” Ongpin said in his first appearance at a joint committee hearing of the Senate yesterday.

“Mike Arroyo is a friend of mine before Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was president but friendship does not mean that I was his crony,’” Ongpin said.

Ongpin, trade minister under the Marcos administration, has been accused of “insider trading” and of acquiring a “behest” loan of P660 million by the DBP under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

Sen. Serge Osmeña, chair of the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies, is conducting the investigation jointly with the Senate blue ribbon committee.

Osmeña charged the former DBP board under Rey David of “sidestepping” existing regulations in order to accommodate the loan request of Ongpin’s Deltaventure Resources, Inc. (DVRI).

Ongpin then sold the shares to businessman Manny V. Pangilinan and then paid off his loan with the DBP.

MVP not insane

Ongpin said Pangilinan, the buyer of his Philex shares, is not a “half-wit” or “insane” to buy the shares at a higher price when he could have bought them at a lower price in the stock market.

Ongpin said while he bought the shares at P12.75 apiece and then sold it at P21 each to Pangilinan, the DBP also made huge profit since it originally bought the shares at just P5.07 per share.

Meanwhile, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senator Francis Escudero asked whether it only granted the P660-million loan to Delta Ventures Resources Inc. (DVRI) in 2009 just because Ongpin was connected with the company.

“Did you lend the money on the basis of the fact that you were comfortable enough in granting the loan of that magnitude, in spite of [the] not too pleasant condition of the financial records [of DVRI], because of Mr. Ongpin as the beneficial owner of the corporation?” Enrile asked former DBP chair Reynaldo David.

“(That is the) rich father-in-law syndrome. Is that common practice in banks? Would banks accept that?” added Escudero.

David explained that the grant was premised on two things. One is that DVRI had offered a collateral of 68,961,886 shares of Philweb Corporation and 50 million Philex shares, and knowing that the beneficial owner of DVRI -- Ongpin -- had a relationship with DBP and has never failed in paying loan obligations.  

With a report from Marlon Purificacion