FVR not yet off the hook in Urban Bank fiasco

The Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday said it may still investigate former President Fidel Ramos even though the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) had cleared him last week in the closure of Urban Bank.

"No, we are not bound by the complaint (that has yet to be) filed by the BSP. We go by the book, by the evidence," Assistant Chief Prosecutor Leonardo Guiyab Jr., head of the investigating panel, said in an interview.

Even if names of certain individuals were not included in the complaint, Guiyab explained, this does not automatically mean they are off the hook. State prosecutors have authority to include them in the charge sheet if the trail of evidence leads to them.

"They can charge this person, but we can clear him if there is no evidence. And we can also criminally charge even those whose names were not mentioned in the complaint," he said.

Ramos, who is Urban Bank's chairman emeritus, reportedly triggered a bank run when he withdrew a huge amount of money from his account -- Ramos Peace and Development Foundation -- before or after Holy Week.

Ramos denied it, claiming he was also a victim of the bank holiday. "The insinuations that I withdrew a big amount of money is all rumor and speculation. I think you got it all wrong. I'm not an official of the bank in the sense that I help manage and operate the bank," he said.

Justice Secretary Artemio Tuquero had earlier formed a ten-man panel headed by Guiyab to investigated the bank's closure that allegedly stemmed from massive withdrawals by big clients.

The Bureau of Immigration has already barred five bank officials from leaving the country to evade possible prosecution. They are bank chairman Arsenio Bartolome, president and chief executive officer Teodoro Borlongan, corporate secretary Corazon Bejasa, senior vice president Renato Claravall and comptroller Nida Santos.

Tuquero, acting on the President's orders, has also expanded the investigating panel's job and renamed it Task Force on Financial Fraud.

It would "investigate and prosecute cases involving violations of banking, securities and other related laws, including all forms of financial fraud."

BSP Gov. Rafael Buenaventura and deputy governor Alberto Reyes earlier claimed that they found that Urban Bank had diverted some of its funds to help its investment house, Urbancorp Investment Corp.

Based on the bank's financial transactions, they said, the investment house initially suffered liquidity problems mainly because its investments were in real estate assets.

But when Urbancorp investors began asking for their investments and it could not liquidate, the bank channeled its funds.

The central bank also noted some discrepancies in Urban Bank's common trust funds which appeared to have drastically dropped. Bank officials earlier revealed that the bank's liquidity problems had built up and worsened over a five-week period because of heavy withdrawals.