Ongpin: Palace is persecuting me

MANILA, Philippines - Businessman Roberto Ongpin decried yesterday an order of the government to declassify banking information in the P660 million in alleged behest loans granted by the state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to his firm, Delta Venture Resources Inc. (DVRI), in 2009.

Through his lawyer Alex Poblador, Ongpin said this recent move of the administration of President Aquino only proves that the charges against him are politically motivated. He was a former trade minister of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

“In any event, my client is not bothered by the declassification as all his dealings with DBP were aboveboard and he has nothing to hide. What bothers my client is the extent to which his persecutors are going to just to continue this fishing expedition against him,” Poblador said.

“With the exception of Philex, (DVRI) had nothing to do with the Meralco, Metrorail Transit and Lehman accounts,” he stressed.

Ongpin’s camp issued the statement after the Palace declassified banking information on DVRI’s loan with DBP, which is now subject of graft charges before the Ombudsman.

The order came through a letter last Sept. 11 sent to DBP president and chief executive officer Francisco Del Rosario Jr. by the Palace through Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. who signed “by authority of the President.”

In the same letter, the Palace also ordered the declassification of details of individual accounts or specific banking transactions of the DBP on Global Air Services, Inc., Metrorail Transit Corp., installment sale of the shares of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), and investments in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

The government sees these three transactions as possibly “exceptional cases of alleged anomalous transactions” involving more than P17 billion in people’s money.