Clarissa Ocampo quits Equitable

Equitable PCI Bank president Wilfredo Vergara and his sister-in-law Clarissa Ocampo submitted yesterday their irrevocable resignations during the bank’s annual stockholders meeting.

The resignations came amid bank efforts to recapitalize after suffering heavy withdrawals last year due to allegations during deposed President Joseph Estrada’s impeachment trial that the bank had been used to maintain some of Estrada’s secret accounts.

However, the bank’s majority owners, the Go family, have asked Vergara to reconsider and have held off any action from the bank’s board on the resignation.

It was Ocampo, then the bank’s chief trust officer, who testified before the Senate trial that she was just a foot away when Estrada repeatedly signed documents as the owner of bank accounts under the fictitious name Jose Velarde.

Vergara and Ocampo cited personal and health reasons in their letters of resignation.

Vergara said it was an opportune time to step down "especially after the bank has undergone encouraging recovery."

In the last two months, Ocampo has been spending more time out of the head office, serving as an unofficial spokesperson on the bank’s soundness.

Even as Vergara and Ocampo submitted their resignations, news of their resignations spread by cellphone text messages within the banking industry.

Industry sources said the resignation of Vergara was necessary so the bank can move on without any reminder of the "unfortunate Estrada incident." Sources said Ocampo resigned in sympathy to Vergara’s move.

Sources said the two resignations are just the beginning of a management shake-up.

Expected to resign in the following weeks are the officers Vergara brought with him from the defunct Far East Bank and Trust Co. in 1994 when he joined the bank which was then known as the Equitable Banking Corp.

He was invited to join Equitable by his former Ateneo classmate and then EBC chairman George Go, who has since resigned after his involvement in the Velarde account was uncovered in the impeachment trial.

He remains in the board of directors as one of the representatives of the Go family which owns a 35 percent stake in the bank.