The House of Representatives Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability is set to reopen its investigation on the DBP loans to the Lopez Group of Companies.
This came after President Rodrigo Duterte renewed his tirade against the embattled network using the long-settled issue on Lopez’s DBP loans.
During his weekly late-night public address, Duterte said he won’t let the network operate again even if Congress grants them a fresh broadcast franchise. Duterte insisted that the Lopez group should settle its unpaid taxes first although the BIR and the DBP cleared ABS-CBN of any obligation.
Following Duterte’s rant, tension arose in the House plenary when party-list congressman and one of the loudest critics of ABS-CBN franchise renewal Mike Defensor took the floor to question the House leadership on its failure to act on the Lopez’s DBP Loans investigation.
Defensor claimed that BSP flagged the Lopez Group’s loans for being condoned by the DBP.
“Doon po sa aming pag-uusap sinabi ng BSP na ‘yung mga loan na ito ay walang elegibility, ‘yun po ang nauna. Ang pangalawa po sinabi po nila ay walang mga dokumento at nawawala na daw, ang hindi alam ng DBP eh meron po tayong hawak na dokumento dahil ang isyu po na ito ay lumabas na isang dekadang nakaraan,” he explained.
Meanwhile, according to Good Governance Committee chair Mike Aglipay, House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco has instructed him to resume the hearing sooner than schedule and they agreed to take it up on February 18.
“Ang instruction niya na tayo maski hindi pa Feb. 18 mag-hearing na. ‘Yung utos po na ‘yun Feb. 3, sabi ko Speaker kailangan po kahit konting oras mabigyan natin kasi 15 years ago pa po ‘tong mga papeles na ito so napagkasunduan po namin Feb. 3 and na-instructionan ko po ang ComSec (Committee Secretary) na i-prepare ang hearing sa Feb. 17, ‘yun po ang napagkasunduan ng lahat,” he said.
The Lopez Group’s DBP loan was one of the issues brought out during the ABS-CBN franchise renewal hearing. ABS-CBN critics claimed the Lopez Group failed to pay their loans which was eventually condoned by the government bank.
DBP however denied the allegations. During the congressional hearing in January, DBP belied claims that the Lopez Group’s loans were written off.
DBP Senior Vice President Soraya Adiong said the loans were audited by the COA and found no irregularity.
“It was audited by the Commission on Audit and in the annual audit report, there was no finding of irregularity,” she said DBP.
DBP President Emmanuel Herbosa meanwhile said that the loans were not condoned but sold to the Lehman Brothers based on Republic Act No. 9182 or the SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) Act of 2002.
“These NPLs (non-performing loans) and NPAs (non-performing assets) were dealt with in the regular course of business and disposed of by DBP pursuant to Republic Act No. 9182, entitled The Special Purpose Vehicles Act of 2002, as amended by RA No. 9343 and other applicable laws, which authorized financial institutions, like DBP to transfer NPLs and NPAs to SPVs (special purpose vehicles) created under the Act.
“The law provided the avenue for Philippine banks to dispose [of] non-performing assets to be more liquid…. It’s not a loan condonation, we sold it with a P3.83-billion bid in favor of DBP,” said Herbosa.