The Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCom) said on Friday that former Finance minister Roberto Ongpin opted to quit his position as co-chairman and director to spare the bank from issues.

“Ongpin resigned from all of his positions at the bank because the Monetary Board [of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] decision to ‘defer’ confirmation of Ongpin’s election to the PBCom Board, while confirming the election of all other directors, was patently unfair and might be prejudicial to the bank,” a PBCom statement said.

“He therefore decided to resign from all his positions from PBCom in order to forestall this possibility,” it added.

In September 2012, the office of the Ombudsman filed graft charges against Ongpin together with former high-ranking officials of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) in connection with an alleged P660-million behest loan to the company owned by the former Cabinet official.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales approved the filing of charges against Ongpin, former DBP Chairman Patricia Sto. Tomas, Vice-Chairman Reynaldo David, and directors Alexander Magno, Floro Oliveros, Miguel Romero, Franklin Velarde, Renato Velasco and Joseph Donato Pangilinan, among others.

According to the Ombudsman, the majority of  Ongpin-owned Delta Ventures Resources Inc. (DVRI) shares were registered under Josephine Manalo, president of the company. Delta Ventures only had a capital of P625,000.

“In November and December 2009, Ongpin and David were directors of Philex Mining Corp. Ongpin was a former DBP director and is a known associate of David,” the Ombudsman revealed.

Ongpin had claimed that DVRI is not a “so-so” company despite the losses it incurred in 2008. He said that when the stock market crashed in 2008, the recorded losses of DVRI were “unrealized losses” since the company is a holding company.

He added that the loans had a collateral of more than P1.8 billion worth of shares from Philweb Corp.