BSP, other creditors eye Go assets to settle over P6-B debt by defunct Orient Bank

MANILA, Philippines - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), and other creditors are running after the assets of businessman Jose Go as payment for the financial obligations of the defunct Orient Bank amounting to over P6 billion.

BSP Deputy Governor and General Counsel Juan de Zuniga Jr. said in an interview with reporters that the central bank is also targeting other Go-owned companies and assets to pay the closed bank’s advances and overdrafts obtained from the central bank.

“It is a continuing effort on our part to conduct asset search against those who owe us. I cannot, however, identify target assets as it may affect our efforts,” De Zuñiga stressed.

Go controls various companies that include the flagship Ever Gotesco Group of Companies which operates four shopping malls: Gotesco Grand Central, Ever Gotesco Commonwealth Center, Ever Gotesco Ortigas Complex and Ever Recto.

Last month, the BSP successfully took over Go’s sprawling Evercrest Golf Club and Resort in Batulao and Nasugbu, Batangas valued at about P1.2 billion. The central bank intends to auction the property within the year to pay the creditors of Orient Bank.

The Evercrest Golf Club and Resort features a golf course as well as 76-room accommodations with balconies overlooking the panoramic view of the famous Caleruega Church and breathtaking Taal Lake.

Go and other Orient Bank owners reportedly owe the BSP P6 billion in emergency advances and overdrafts obtained by the closed bank.

A Manila court ordered Go, on behalf of his Ever Gotesco Group of Companies, and his brothers, George Co Go and Vicente Co Go, together with Evercrest Golf Club Resorts and Megaheights on December 2003 to pay Orient Bank’s obligations to the BSP, including a principal of P2.9 billion.

Other groups, including LKG Finance & Investment Corp., are also trying to collect debt payments from Go and his companies.

LKG has a pending court case against Go seeking to secure shares of Metropolitan Medical Center that operates a 400-bed hospital in Binondo.

Metropolitan Medical Center was established by the United Doctors Service Corp. in 1968 and is currently headed by Go. The hospital together with the Metropolitan Hospital College of Nursing, are presently controlled by Go’s Gotesco Properties Inc.

Citing court records, LKG claimed that it won a writ of execution as early as 2006 and another notice in April 2010 against Gotesco Properties Inc., which acquired the 26-story Medical Arts Building of the hospital in 1998.

LKG Finance was also trying to collect a P50-million loan from Go.

“In case of Mr. Jose Go’s inability to pay his P50 million loan to United Doctors Service Corp., respondents are hereby directed to sell at public auction Mr. Go’s shares of capital stock of UDSC,” the Manila Regional Trial Court ruled in April last year.

Go appealed the case, which remains to be fully resolved to this day. LKG Finance, however, said the writ should be executory.

The Asian financial crisis had forced Go to shut down Orient Bank in 1998.