Ongpin to file disbarment case vs Ongkiko-Acorda

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of businessman Roberto Ongpin will file a disbarment case against lawyer Zenaida Ongkiko-Acorda for claiming to be the spokesperson of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

In a press statement, Ongpin said that Acorda abrogated unto herself the title of “DBP spokesperson” in a press conference called at her office last August 10.

But subsequent reports indicate that the government financial institution did not retained her services.

“Clearly, Atty. Ongkiko-Acorda purported to represent the DBP when she had no authority to do so,” Ongpin said.

The statement further alleged that Acorda said that the DBP had been instructed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to investigate the Ongpin loans, deliberately neglecting to disclose that DBP had made the request and that the BSP had only responded to DBP’s request.

“A few days later, Atty. Ongkiko-Acorda, again styling herself as DBP spokesperson in a paid advertisement in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, had to retract her statement regarding the BSP’s role and had to admit the true facts, i.e. that it was DBP who had initiated the probe and only submitted its ‘findings’ to the BSP. The paid advertisement retraction clearly demonstrated the falsehood that Atty. Ongkiko-Acorda made in her press statement regarding the role of the BSP,” it added.

“I think that now is the time to put an end to this media battle and bring this entire matter to the courts of law and based on the evidence, let them decide who is right and who is wrong.” Ongpin said.

Acorda for her part called Ongpin’s accuations “false and malicious.”

In a press statement, Acorda said that Ongpin’s public threat of disbarment “is an obvious attempt o embarrass me and our law firm and to divert the public’s attention from the real issue.”

She said that the DBP Board had authorized her to act as spokesperson and counsel. And in The Philippine STAR articles dated August 22, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) had deputized lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno and Acorda to handle the case.

“Instead of shooting the messenger, he (Ongpin) should just deal directly with the message. And the message, as well as the real issue, is simply this: ‘How can an undercapitalized company like Delta Ventures with a paid-up capital of P625,000, losses of P98 million and retained earnings of P2.3 million, obtain a P150-million loan from a government bank like DBP with extraordinary speed? Let him explain that to the Ombudsman,” the Acorda statement continued.

The lawyer said that the millions of pesos that allegedly went to the pockets of a few individuals could have gone “to help farmers, small entrepreneurs, microenterprises, cooperatives and farmers’ associations which could have availed of loans for microfinance, agricultural and livelihood projects and other projects that could have furthered the developmental goals of DBP.”