After filing graft charges against Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Gov. Nestor Espenilla Jr. before the Office of the Ombudsman, businessman Roberto Ongpin filed another criminal case—this time against Executive Director Vicente Aquino of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

The case was filed on Friday also before the Ombudsman.

“My reputation has been tarnished by bureaucrats who have not done their homework properly. I have spent a lifetime building it and I will not let anyone get away with reckless and unfounded accusations that undermine a lifetime of hard work,” Ongpin said.

The businessman stressed that he filed the complaint as a “signal of protest” against his detractors.

“In making this criminal complaints and probably civil charges too, I earnestly hope that I am making a contribution to my fellow private sector colleagues who are in the same boat and can be accused without any basis and see their reputation damaged,” Ongpin added.

Moroever, he explained that after the Court of Appeals granted the petition of the council to freeze his accounts, the market value of his shares lost some P3 billion. The price of the said shares further dipped by P8 billion some 20 days after the freeze order, according to the businessman.

“More important to me is the damage to my reputation,” Ongpin stressed.

Flip-flopping
Ongpin filed the complaint against Aquino for violating the Anti-Graft Law grounded on the AMLC executive’s alleged gross inexcusable negligence based on the records on the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP)-Philex case.

Ongpin is also suing Aquino for perjury as he swore to the ex-parte freeze order petition filed before the Court of Appeals.

Aquino also swore under oath that the Development Bank’s loans to Ongpin violated banking laws, rules and regulations. Yet, Espenilla himself acknowledged under oath, in a Senate hearing, that from the point of view of the central bank as the regulator of banks, the sale by the Development Bank of its 50 million Philex shares to a company beneficially owned and controlled by Ongpin was a “prudent” and “positive” transaction that resulted in trading gains for the bank.

Aquino also said in his ex-parte petition that the DBP loans to Ongpin were “behest loans.”

Ongpin also underlined that the Development Bank itself, in its complaint-affidavit filed before the Ombudsman in September 2011, acknowledged that both loans were fully paid on December 8, 2009, well before the maturity of the cited loans.

According to jurisprudence, for a loan to be considered behest, it must be nonperforming, or in default.

Lost profits
The businessman’s complaint also cited that Aquino alleged in the ex-parte petition that Ongpin caused the Development Bank undue injury when it lost “opportunity profits” when it sold its 50 million Philex shares to Ongpin at P12.75 a share instead of to Manuel “Manny” Pangilinan at P21 a share.

“Like Espenilla, Aquino has caused my reputation the gravest damage by his signing an ex-parte petition for a freeze order and swearing to that Petition under oath. As I’ve previously said, this action, which is totally without basis is never taken lightly by anyone, not my international business partners, and certainly not by the investing public, which has lost for me several billions in market value of my listed shares. I cannot allow AMLC’s Aquino to take this most serious action, whether deliberate or not, and let him get away with it,” Ongpin added.

When the new board of the Development Bank took over in 2010, they questioned these transactions with Ongpin. A Senate investigation then ensued where Espenilla declared under oath that the transactions of DBP with Ongpin were “prudent” and “positive” that resulted in “trading gains” for the bank.

Then, in November 2012, Aquino, as executive director of the AMLC Secretariat, verified and signed an ex-parte application for a freeze order against the accounts of some 30 individuals and entities, including Ongpin and his companies for the same DBP-Philex transactions.

As a result of the ex-parte application, a freeze order was issued by the appellate court in December 2012.

The Anti-Graft Law punishes public officers who cause undue injury to any party in the discharge of his official functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.