THE son of the former owners of General Bank and Trust Company (GBTC or GenBank) has asked the Office of the Ombudsman to resolve the 10-year-old criminal complaint filed by their family against former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor and Monetary Board chairman Amando Tetangco Jr. and eight other ranking government officials.
In his Urgent Ex-Parte Motion for Immediate Resolution, complainant Joselito Yujuico, through counsel Catalino Generillo, said the 2013 complaint he filed together with his brother Aderito Yujuico and former Iloilo City mayor Rosa Caram remains pending even if the respondents have already submitted their answers.
The Yujuico brothers are sons of late GenBank founder and president Clarence Yujuico while Caram, widow of former Rep. Fermin Caram, was a stockholder of the bank.
Other than Tetangco, also named respondents in the case were Monetary Board members Cesar Purisima, Alfredo Antonio, Ignacio Bunye, Peter Favila, Felipe Medalla, and Armando Suratos. Likewise included were former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairperson Teresita Herbosa and former Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) president Valentin Araneta.
Complainants said the respondent BSP-MB, SEC, and PDIC officials caused them undue injury by allowing the merger of Allied Bank with the Philippine National Bank on February 9, 2013.
Caram and Yujuico pointed out that the application for the merger started in 2008 when Allied Bank was still locked in a court dispute as the Sandiganbayan had yet to rule on Civil Case no. 005.
The case was subsequently dismissed on June 11, 2012 when the Sandiganbayan ruled that the government did not have enough evidence to support its petition to forfeit the assets of businessman Lucio Tan.
In his motion, Yujuico noted that all the respondents have filed their respective answers and they in turn, filed a consolidated reply in April 2013.
“Since then up to now, or a period of more than 10 years, it does not appear that this Honorable Office has acted in the complaint. The complainant cannot help but feel, rightly or wrongly, that he is a victim of delayed administration of justice,” he said.
Yujuico said there is enough evidence for the Ombudsman to issue indictments against the respondents and file graft charges before the Sandiganbayan for causing undue injury to them and the government and for giving undue advantage to Allied Bank.
