Bank regulators still don’t know what to do with failed bank in Pangasinan

by jun vallecera/b. mirror/4.15.2009 FRUSTRATION boiled over into despair among prelates in the Diocese of Lingayen whose tens of millions of pesos in the People’s Rural Bank of Binmaley has put to doubt the future education of thousands of students set to enroll in its several institutions of learning in Pangasinan province this June. They have been asking regulators why it was that the Diocese of Legazpi was paid back its undisclosed millions when the Bicol-based G7 Bank went under, while allowing thousands of Ilocano depositors to fend for themselves as the rural bank tanked a year ago this Saturday. On Tuesday the diocese, as a member of the People’s Bank of Binmaley Uninsured Depositors Association or PBBUDA, saw a glimmer of hope when President Arroyo wrote back to inform them that Malacañang had forwarded their plaintive letter to both the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). But according to PBBUDA president Armi Bangsal-Lorica, the group pleaded with both institutions before to have their hard-earned money released or untangled from the mess allegedly created by self-styled financier Fidel Lo Cu, who came to the bank as a white knight. She said in a telephone interview that depositors like herself continue to believe that Malacañang has persuasive powers over BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. and PDIC president and former Land Bank executive Jose “Jopot” Nograles that they will use the full force of their respective offices to come to the aid not just of the Diocese of Lingayen but also to small depositors like herself. The PBBUDA did not just ask regulators for relief but presented a proposal designed not just to help themselves as aggrieved depositors, but to make things easier for the PDIC and the BSP as well. All of them, the Lingayen prelates included, were willing to convert their deposits into equity in a resurrected People’s Bank, but have thus far heard only grunts from the authorities, according to Lorica, whose grandfather, Julio Javier, founded the original bank taken over later by Cu. Deputy BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said in a text message that taking over a bank as investor is not a walk in the park.