Sandiganbayan junks 12-yr-old graft case vs DBP officials

A 12-year-old graft case filed against former top executives of the Development Bank of the Philippines has been dismissed by the Sandiganbayan First Division on the recommendation of government prosecutors.

In an eight-page resolution issued last Sept. 13, the anti-graft court granted the prosecution’s motion to withdraw the information against all the accused concerning the alleged anomalous approval of a P23-million loan in favor of the now-defunct Wright Patterson Manufacturing Corp. (WPMC).

The case, filed on May 2, 1994, named DBP board of governors chairman Rafael Sison and members Alejandro Melchor, Cesar Zalamea, Rolando Gapud, Ruben Ancheta, Rolando Zosa, Roberto Ongpin, and Jose Tengco Jr. as defendants.

Also charged in their private capacity were WPMC president Abelardo Villarosa, and directors Fermin Reyes, Ricardo dela Vega, Rudolfo Pineda, Jose Santiago, Arsenio Villarosa, Manuel Diaz, Benjamin Diaz, and Romeo Abella.

Graft investigators had accused the DBP executives of giving undue advantage to WPMC and causing injury to the government when they approved the private firm’s loan application for P23 million in 1979 despite the fact that WPMC had a paid-up capital of only P100,000 and submitted collateral with an assessed total value of only P454,000.

The Ombudsman noted that DBP’s credit investigator Cesar Recto submitted an adverse report on WPMC but his findings were ignored by his superiors.

Charges against Ongpin, Zalamea and Gapud were dropped in 1995 after prosecutors manifested that a review of the bank records showed the three did not participate in the deliberations of the DBP board regarding the loan.

In a memorandum September 1996, the prosecution moved for the dismissal of the case against the remaining defendants saying that after reinvestigation, it found lack of probable cause.