Geronimo: Did RVO illegally trade his Philex shares?

THERE is no question that, at the time relevant to the controversial loan granted to him by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to Delta Ventures Resources Inc. (DVPI) for the purpose of enabling the latter to purchase shares in Philex Mining, Honourable Roberto V. Ongpin was a member of the Board of that mining company. Ipso facto, his membership in the Philex board, even without his other duties in the company, made him, within the meaning of the Securities Regulation Code (R.A. 8799) an "insider."

Bunye: Rural banking

THE importance of rural banking in the Philippines cannot be overemphasized.

Geronimo: A Desecration of DBP's Calling

IT WAS known as the Rehabilitation Finance Corporation (RFC) when I was a boy. Every month, my father used to send me to its office downtown to pay the monthly amortization for the loans that we had taken out in order to repair our humble house in Tondo ever since I knew not when and up until, at long last, there was no more debt to pay.

Bunye: Bankers Institute of the Philippines

THIS year, the Bankers Institute of the Philippines or BAIPHIL celebrates its 70th Anniversary.

Letter to the editor: Street justice in Manila

AS A tourist is always a good thing to run into government employees who go above and beyond their normal duties to make tourists feel welcome in Manila and the Philippines.

Geronimo: Ooh, Lala

LALA Rimando is used to seeing her name in print, but not the way it appeared five times in the upper fold of a whole page paid advertisement that came out last week (August 9) in a daily broadsheet containing a press statement from a self-styled "technocrat" during the Marcos years.

Bunye: The General Banking Law Annotated

A MAGNUM opus that deserves such great intellectual respect.

Geronimo: Another magnum opus from BSP

SKIPPING dinner last Friday was an easy decision to make. The merienda fare served late afternoon at the Assembly Hall of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) during the launch of "Banking Laws of the Philippines, Book II, THE GENERAL BANKING LAW, Annotated" was very filling. But more than gustatory surfeit, what sent me straight to my study desk was avid appetite to savor the smorgasbord of legal material offered by the latest book on the subject. After all, banking, like computing, is an activity where practitioners are constrained to be up to date, or else face extinction.

Bunye: Proper handling of bills and coins

IF "crumpled" does not even begin to describe your P20 bill, chances are it is "unfit".

Geronimo: Not Wanting in Tax Collection Effort

LAST Monday, a broadsheet reported a certain Ernst Wanten, allegedly president of Total Philippines, expressing, purportedly on behalf of the oil industry in the country, disgust over the way the new government is seeking to raise revenue collections.

Bunye: Ensuring safe and reliable remittances

FAMILIES of Filipinos working abroad should probably have no problem receiving their remittances nowadays. There are a lot of reliable remittance centers and products that they can choose from—from banks to money transfer to mobile banking facilities.

Geronimo: Exacto Ad Absurdum

REPUBLIC Act No. 8282, the law that expanded the jurisdiction of the Court of Tax Appeals, elevated its rank to the level of a collegiate court with special jurisdiction and enlarged its membership, had in Section 7(b)(1), an obvious purpose: to avoid multiplicity of suits by centralizing in the Court of Tax Appeals the adjudication of big ticket disputes between the taxpayer on the one hand and the Bureau of Internal Revenue or the Bureau of Customs on the other.

Bunye: Glad to be a quitter

WHO remembers the Marlboro Man? Many actors have posed and acted in the Marlboro advertisements, some of them real cowboys. At least two have been confirmed by snopes.com to have succumbed to lung cancer. They are Wayne MacLaren and David McLean. In fact, according to his IMDB (Internet Movie Database) profile, upon learning he had lung cancer, David McLean asked the stockholders of Philip Morris, maker of Marlboro, to limit their advertising. His campaign was so successful that the present generation no longer sees the cowboy ads anymore.

Geronimo: Unjustified demand for exactitude

THE rise to prominence of criminal action as a means of raising tax collections, under the RATE ("Run After Tax Evaders") program that was started in 2005 and which is being revitalized, with great vigor, by Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares, sets on a collision course, now more than ever, two sets of fundamental principles of constitutional, statutory, and judge-made law.

Bunye: The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas at 18 (Concluded from last week)

THE BSP’s month-long anniversary celebration is marked by festivities such as a financial education expo, a book fair, a wellness festival, and a tree planting activity -- among other exciting events.

Geronimo: Paradigm Shift at the BIR

TIME was at the Bureau of Internal Revenue when the marching orders from the top to the lieutenants below and all the way to lowest rank-and-file was to simply collect revenues in order to replenish (if not fill-up) the government coffers.

Bunye: The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas at 18

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) had its very own "coming-of-age" celebration when it observed its 18th anniversary last week.

Geronimo: Briefly basking in the limelight

THE dissenting opinion, penned by Justice Presbiterio J. Velasco Jr., in the case of Wilson F. Gamboa v. Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves, et al, G.R. No. 176579, decided by the Supreme Court on 28 June 2011, ("PLDT case") gave me and my colleague at our law office, Atty. Precilla B. Valer, undeserved mention.

Bunye: Overseas Filipinos now saving and investing more

WITH continuous financial education, more and more migrant Filipinos and their families are becoming aware of the importance of saving and investing their remittances.

Geronimo: Cracks in BF Retirement Fund Inc.'s stonewall

HERE is a reader's reaction sent in last week to the pieces I have been writing recently on the mysterious Banco Filipino Retirement Fund Inc.:

Bunye: Unfair collection practices

EVER received threatening phone calls from a credit card collection agent? How about calls during the wee hours of the morning or in the middle of the night?

Worry not, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) actually has existing regulations that prohibit credit card issuers and their collection agents from engaging in unfair collection practices.

Geronimo: The BF Retirement Fund Inc. folly

WHOEVER it was who caused Banco Filipino (BF) to transform in 2007 the Banco Filipino Retirement Plan's funding vehicle from the trust that it was even prior to its first closure in 1985 into a corporation after its reopening in the mid 90's did the bank's stakeholders a very great disservice. With neither rhyme nor reason, the mindless conversion ignored the generous package of privileges granted by law, privileges that were designed for the immediate good of the workers and eventual benefit to society as a whole. Moreover, the perpetrators of the BF Retirement Fund, Inc. folly added insult to injury by thereby not only inflicting on BF stakeholders the unnecessary pain of paying taxes but also exposed the fund, the caprices of BF management making likely its demise.

Bunye: Hidden credit card charges

MOST credit card holders would agree that there is nothing sneakier than a "hidden" credit card charge.

Geronimo: The mysterious BF Retirement Fund, Inc

WHEN Mr. Perfecto R. Yasay, Jr., who for some strange reason ended his letter to me of May 25 with the claim that he was “U.P. College of Law, 1972”, failed to favor me with the answer to the main question I posed the following week, namely the whereabouts of the Banco Filipino employees’ retirement fund, I took it upon myself to dig for the reply. My sleuthing was not as good as Lala Rimando’s of Newsbreak but I did unearth some details some might find interesting.

Bunye: The BSP and You (Third of a Series)

IN THE last two weeks, I have discussed how the BSP plays a number of roles as it carries out its duties and responsibilities in the Philippine economy.

As the country’s money supplier, the BSP has the sole authority and exclusive power to issue the Philippine peso. As the money manager, it makes sure that there is just enough money to meet the needs of the Philippine economy.

Geronimo: Who has the BF Retirement trust fund?

IN MY heart, there will always be room for labor; for I am a follower of Johnny Tan of the Federation of Free Workers who was mentored by Walter Hogan, who was a member of Ignatio de Loyola's special action force formed to walk in the footsteps of Jesus the Nazaroan, who was the son of Joseph the carpenter. I am thus one with my brothers in the labor movement who want to know, as I am sure the employees of Banco Filipino also do, exactly where the Banco Filipino retirement trust fund had gone.

Bunye: The BSP and You (Second of a Series)

LAST week, I discussed the different functions of the BSP, aside from its more popular role as the country’s “money printer.”

Geronimo: Yasay’s Fact-Challenged Reaction

IT HAS been my practice all these over ten years of weekly column writing to publish, within the constraints of space and other reasonable bounds, the reactions sent to me by my readers, especially those disagreeing with me irrespective of how disagreeable they may be.

Bunye: The BSP and You (First of a Series)

WHEN you hear the words Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?

I bet that it's money, and you're absolutely right. In small letters, the name Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is printed on every bill and stamped on every coin which we use in practically all of our daily transactions.

Geronimo: Apostolic Exposure of Perfecto Conflicto

TUESDAY last week, 17 May, during the hearing of the House of Representatives' Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries, the public was treated to a splendid exhibition of effective interrogation. The star of the show was the Committee Chairman, Sergio F. Apostol. In just a short sequence of verbal thrusts and slashes, he exposed Atty. Perfecto Yasay as seriously conflicted.