Geronimo: Confusion amongst Ongpin’s minions

THEY were running like chicken without heads.  Because, I suspect, their head was not around to give them direction and orchestrate their specific spiels.

Bunye: ‘Money laundering’ at the BSP

THERE is some sort of money laundering taking place at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. But it’s not of the criminal kind.

Geronimo: Cracks in DBP's defensive wall

NOVEMBER 14 which was when, at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's and Committee on Banks' joint hearing on Development Bank of the Philippines' questionable transactions subject of Senate Resolution No. 555 filed by Senator Panfilo Lacson, former DBP President Rey David was left by his erstwhile friend Roberto Ongpin to fend for himself, was not David's first taste of abandonment.

Bunye: A new Guinness record for longest line of coins

THERE is a line from an old poem that goes: “Little drops of water...make the mighty ocean.”

Geronimo: Fragile Friendship Based on Business

REYNALDO G. David must have been a very sad man last 14 November 2011. On national television, David unabashedly sang peans about his friend, Roberto V. Ongpin, in the course of his testimony at the joint hearings of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and Committee on Banks and Other Financial Institutions.

Bunye: Exercising care when using your ATM card

EVER heard of the term “shoulder surfing”?

No, it does not have anything to do with the water or the sport. However, it has everything to do with safety precautions during the festive season which thieves normally take advantage off.

Bunye: BSP’s painting collection

EARLIER this year, I wrote about the BSP’s Painting Collection, which art curators in the country have described as “formidable”.

Ramon E.S. Lerma, Curator of the Ateneo Art Gallery, said that in terms of size and historical breadth, the BSP Painting Collection rivals that of any museum of national standing.

Geronimo: Two friends and Two Rivers

ONE would have thought they were Damon and Phythias; Roberto V. Ongpin and Rey G. David, based on their public statements, were indeed the best of friends; unthinkable, even for a fleeting moment, that one would desert the other, even when the going gets rough and the rough gets going.

Bunye: A girl named Arizza

DEVOTION knows no age.

For her awe-inspiring role in building libraries and countering the culture of guns with books and education in Mindanao, 17-year-old Arizza Ann Sahi Nocum recently received an award from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the National Library of the Philippines (NLP).

Geronimo: What makes insider trading wrong?

THAT the Honourable Roberto V. Ongpin went out of his way to take out a paid advertisement in a major broadsheet last October 13 in order to deny the accusation that he had engaged in “insider trading” when he bought, over time, and then sold to Manny Pangilinan in one shot his block of Philex Mining Corporation shares demonstrates the stigma currently attached to insider trading. What, indeed, makes insider trading wrong?

Bunye: Helping save the environment

THIS is proof that government agencies can serve the Filipino people and the environment at the same time.

Geronimo: Sanction against Securities Misbehavior

FOOLING around with the securities market is dangerous for a fool’s legal health. The policy of the State, as stated in Section 2 of the Securities Regulation Code (SRC), is to “establish a socially conscious, free market that regulates itself, encourage the widest participation of ownership in enterprises, enhance the democratization of wealth, promote the development of the capital market, protect investors, ensure full and fair disclosure about securities, minimize if not totally eliminate insider trading and other fraudulent or manipulative devices and practices which create distortions in the free market.”

Bunye: BSP assists banks in typhoon-ravaged areas

THE recent typhoons and tropical storms such as “Pedring,” “Mina” and “Juaning” have brought much devastation to various cities and provinces in the country. While media reports normally focus on the loss of lives, resources and property, little is said about the storms’ effects on the banking system.

Letter to the editor: Current inconsistencies

AT THE present time, there is much talk of democracy, tolerance and freedom of expression, but can note that not everything is so real.

Geronimo: Insider trading doctrine’s seeds were sown in PH

THE Honourable Roberto V. Ongpin ended his Oct 13 statement defending his accumulation of Philex shares and subsequent block sale to MVP in November '09 with, "So I ask, 'insider trading'? Nonsense. This was part of normal stock market operations, based on careful analysis of the value of Philex shares and fortuitous events such as mentioned above with the entry into the fray of Mr. Ang and Mr. Garcia.”

Bunye: Kudos for BSP

NOTHING like words of praise to warm the heart.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recently received three successive accolades from the Makati Business Club (MBC), the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), and a member of the Philippine Congress -- affirmations that will truly inspire the BSP community to accomplish more.

Geronimo: The naked truth about behest

THE Honourable Roberto V. Ongpin, in his paid advertisement carried in two broad sheets last week, projects his belief that the issue of his DBP loans as having been "behest" has been disposed of. "Based on the pronouncements of several Presidents of the country and bolstered by several Supreme Court decisions," RVO claims, "there is simply no way that a loan which has been paid and caused no injury and on the contrary made a ton of money for DBP can be called "behest." Not so fast Sir. And I suggest that my readers, if any, take a look at the Supreme Court's recent decision, Presidential Ad Hoc Fact-Finding Committee on Behest Loans, et al v. Hon. Aniano A. Desierto, as Ombudsman, et al. G.R. No. 135715, promulgated April 13, 2011.

Letter to the editor

THIS is with regards to press reports that President Aquino allows former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to seek medical treatment abroad even if she doesn't return anymore.

I believe PNoy knows there's no country the Arroyos can't be extradited when criminal charges against them are filed in court pursuant to the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), particularly these excerpts from its international cooperation provisions, to wit:

Bunye: Ateneo College of Law at 75

YOU may have recently encountered some P100 bills that bear the special imprint of the Ateneo de Manila Law School’s 75th Anniversary celebration.

Geronimo: The porous defense of Business Judgment Rule

IT IS the “direct or indirect endorsement by high government officials...”, as phrased by former President Fidel V. Ramos’ Memorandum Order No. 61, dated 09 November 1992, that is determinative of a behest loan; the rest of the characteristics that were mentioned are simply features of a simply faulty loan. It is the order, euphemistically described as “endorsement” which, that puts an examined loan under the category of a “behest loan.”

Bunye: BSP promotes financial literacy

FINANCIAL literacy: what is it and how is it important to us Filipinos?

Geronimo: In Quest of Behest

IN THE eye of the storm of accusations and counter-accusations hurled between the top incumbent officials of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), on the one side, and the Honourable Roberto V. Ongpin (RVO) and his friends who were with the DBP, is the issue of whether the loan granted by DBP way back 2009 to Delta Ventures Resources Inc. was a “behest loan”.  That precise question, with the Ombudsman having given due course to the accusers’ complaint-affidavit and having afforded, I assume by now, RVO and his friends the opportunity to respond, is presently sub judice and cannot properly be commented on.  However, there is no legal impediment for this corner, whose mission is to try to give to the layman, as it had tried to do since the time of Quisa Ocampo’s testimony at the ERAP impeachment proceedings on the Jose Velarde signature, an understanding of the words of legal art often invoked in the discussions and the nuances of conflicting legal argumentation, to go into a brief discussion of the concept, in general, of a “behest loan”.

Bunye: Starting them young

HABITS, good or bad, truly start young.

In an effort to teach children the importance of money management, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and partner institutions have embarked on projects that seek to enable children to grow into financially responsible adults.

Bunye: Kudos to our teachers

TEACHING is truly the noblest profession. How many times have we heard that if there are no teachers, there will be no doctors, no lawyers, no illustrious men and women in our history? It would be safe to say that behind every great man and woman is a dedicated and persevering teacher.

Geronimo: Thou, Director, shalt not Profit

IT IS understandable for Philex or any of its stockholders, be they holding interests for themselves or on behalf of others, to hestitate seeking to claw back the profits made by the Honourable Roberto V. Ongpin (RVO) from his insider transactions in 2009 relating to his Philex holdings.

Bunye: Kudos to our outstanding teachers

THIS month, we celebrate a very special occasion: the National Teacher’s Month Campaign.

Geronimo: To sue but not to offend

IT WILL not be surprising if Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP) were to not make any move, at this time or any time soon, to claim for Philex Mining the short-swing profits that apparently were realized in 2009 by then Philex director Roberto V. Ongpin (RVO). RVO admitted to reaping gains when, within a period of about two months from his purchase of 50 million of the mining company's shares from the Development Bank of the Philippines on 05 November, he sold them, together with other shares and with other persons, to MVP's Two Rivers.

Speak Out: Prevention is an urgent priority in tackling the global epidemic of Non-Communicable Diseases

WITH the onset of the HIV/Aids epidemic in the 1980s, infectious diseases and their impact on humankind have become a major preoccupation for the public, governments and the media alike. But whilst contagious diseases such as HIV/Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis may have historically dominated the global healthcare agenda, less visible, yet even deadlier, forms of illnesses are emerging as a mortal threat to millions worldwide.

Bunye: Ten Outstanding Philippine Soldiers

AN ENGINEER. An administrator. An inventor. A helicopter gunner. What do they all have in common? They are all soldiers.

Geronimo: Did RVO do the swing?

THE Honourable Roberto V. Ongpin ought to be given credit for, among his many other qualities, being very open and transparent, at least in his defense of his now controversial acquisition and sale of Philex shares. He was so upfront with the whats, whys and wherefores, of his profitable transaction that he even went to the extent, needlessly to my mind, of putting his gains in legal jeopardy for being what are called by stock market players as "short-swing profits."