The war between former Finance minister Roberto Ongpin and officials of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) is far from over.

Ongpin on Wednesday said that he will be filing charges against Nestor Espenilla Jr., BSP deputy governor, and Vicente Aquino, AMLC executive director, for allegedly tarnishing his reputation.

Alex Poblador, Ongpin’s legal counsel, said that the businessman has “decided to take all justifiable action to seek appropriate retribution” as he has suffered financial damage “clearly quantifiable in terms of the major drop, amounting to several billion pesos.”

Poblador said that a criminal suit will be filed against Espenilla because of the contradictory positions he took on the matter, while Aquino is being sued for his participation in damaging Ongpin’s reputation.

He added that the central bank statement issued on Tuesday was “lame” and that the bank is contradicting itself.

“During the Senate hearings in 2011, Mr. Espenilla stated under oath that Mr. Ongpin’s transactions with DBP [Development Bank of the Philippines] regarding Philex [Mining Corp.] shares were ‘positive’ for the bank,” Poblador said.

“Interestingly, the BSP news release did not address this particular issue, which is of paramount importance, because there simply is no defense against it,” Poblador said, referring to the central bank statement which said that Ongpin was “wrong” in claiming that Espenilla damaged to his reputation.

“The BSP statement shrugs off and ignores the principal complaint of Mr. Ongpin that Mr. Espenilla’s irresponsible action has resulted in severe damage to him,” Poblador stressed.

He took note of the part of the central bank statement justifying the action of the council on the basis of the Ombudsman resolution against Ongpin.

He said that a careful reading of the Ombudsman resolution would show that it did not rule that Ongpin committed any crime when he acquired DBP’s Philex shares.

“It is undisputed that Mr. Ongpin has fully repaid those loans and it was irresponsible for council to misrepresent to the Court of Appeals that their proceeds were in his bank accounts and that therefore those accounts should be frozen,” Poblador said.