May Deposito Ba Kayo Sa Bangkong Makakati ang Daliri ng mga Opisyal?

Kakagising ko pa lang at habang nagkakape, may nakita akong message sa inbox ng Facebook ko na nagbibigay ng warning laban sa isang bangko na mistulang makati ang mga daliri ng mga opisyal.

Medyo nabahala ako kasi sa panahon ng kagipitan, ang savings ko lamang ang inaasahan kong makakatulong sa akin na makatawid at maka-survive ng paghina ng ekonomiya dahil sa COVID-19 pandemic.

Ang pumasok sa isip ko nung nabasa ko ang sinulat ni Charlie Manalo ng Manila Standard tungkol sa isang bangko na mistulang makati ang mga daliri ng mga opisyal, kinabahan ako na bangkong pinagde-deposituhan ko ito at baka mawala ang pera ko.

Heto ang bahagi ng sinulat ni Mr. Manalo na column na may title, :

This writer learned that as soon as the ECQ was downgraded to GCQ, a budding entrepreneur who is into town mall development and has had a partnership-gone-sour with the “alphabet name” investment firm initiated a complaint for investigation with the Monetary Board against the top honchos of the centenary bank including more than 20 of its top-tier officers over a 4-billion worth unreported and illegal DOSRI loans.

 

The complainant invoked the newly minted Citizen’s Charter adopted by the Monetary Board, just last year, which pledged to the public an action on a complaint with dispatch within a period of five days. The complaint will undoubtedly test the mettle of the Citizen’s Charter and the resolve of the Monetary Board to exorcise the banking industry of recalcitrant bank directors and officers even as the industry is still smarting from the fallout of the Bangladeshi money laundering fiasco.

Legal experts consulted by this writer say the complaint for investigation now on the plate of the Monetary Board could be larger and more significant than the much-vaunted DOSRI prosecution of a defunct pre-EDSA bank directors and officers that even yielded the criminal indictment of a former cabinet member of the current dispensation.

The DOSRI investigation now being sought for may yet turn out to be the proverbial big fish in the banking industry; a befitting sampler of the central monetary authority’s revitalized campaign to rid the industry of misfits, if the complaint is proven to be accurate.

The DOSRI investigation if pursued by the Monetary Board might also give the public not only a glimpse but a front-seat perspective of the business ethics of the alphabet name investment firm and its prime leasing sister company, both of which have a market capitalization of more than P1 trillion before the ECQ.At the peak of the quarantine, the value of these companies reportedly slashed by half in the stock market.

To maintain the share price and arrest its plummet, alphabet name investment firm and prime leasing corporation was said to have unleashed their cash reserves. How long they can sustain the internal stimulus remains a challenge.

The DOSRI investigation involving the top honchos of the centenary bank and a number of its officers might not only bring about the collapse of its human resources pool but also generate a well-founded doubt on the integrity of the alphabet name investment firm as well as the way it forays into mergers and acquisitions.

P. Farol

Writer.