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Sunday, February 06, 2005
Housing official sued over P70M
By Karlon N. Rama
CEBU CITY -- A Cebuano banker has accused the newly installed chairman of a government-owned finance agency of allegedly pocketing almost P70 million in checks intended to pay a bank loan.
Businessman Jacinto Jamero, former majority stockholder of the Cebu-based Philippine Countryside Rural Bank (PCRB), filed last Thursday estafa complaints against National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. Chairman Celso delos Angeles Jr. before the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor.
The estafa complaint is the biggest of its kind since the start of the year and since the Department of Justice (DOJ) began collecting fees for certain complaints lodged before it for action. The filing fee reached P294,500.
"Celso delos Angeles Jr.'s failure to deliver the checks that I entrusted to him to PCRB has caused grave and serious prejudice on my part since, up to now, my obligations with the bank remain outstanding," Jamero said.
The complaint stemmed from the alleged transaction entered into by delos Angeles in July 2003, in his capacity as representative of the Legacy Consolidated Plans Inc. (LCPI), involving the sale of 83.43 percent of voting stocks of PCRB, which Jamero owns.
P85M deal
Jamero said he and his family sold their shares to LCPI for P85 million. In accordance with a memorandum of agreement, they were supposed to receive P45 million up front and P40 million in post-dated checks, spread over six months.
Upon signing of the memorandum of agreement, Jamero said he instructed LCPI to endorse the six post-dated checks, worth P40 million, to PCRB to pay his liabilities with the bank.
He also made further instructions to endorse P29,850,000, chargeable to the P45 million that LCPI was to pay him up front, to PCRB to settle his liabilities.
Jamero alleged that delos Angeles acceded to the instruction, causing him to turn over the control and management of PCRB to LCPI by virtue of a voting trust agreement.
Jamero, in his complaint, said he found out later that delos Angeles did not make the P29,850,000 payment to PCRB.
Liability
Since no acknowledgement receipt has been issued showing that the Manila-based official actually made any payments to PCRB, Jamero doubts whether the P40 million in checks were credited from his liabilities at all.
Jamero, in a press statement, has also expressed grave concern over the "tremendous rise in deposit liabilities of PCRB," from P188,380,000 in June 2003 to P450,420,000 in June 2004, due to certain management decisions.
He said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has not yet approved the stock transaction between him and the LCPI.
As a consequence, he said, he and his family will still be held liable to the public for whatever "unsafe and unsound" banking practices the PCRB decides to adopt under its LCPI-led management.
(February 6, 2005 issue)
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