Depositors join court battle, oppose Banco Filipino's liquidation

A group of Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank depositors on Monday asked the Court of Appeals to stop the liquidation of the bank and the sale of its assets. In their petition, the depositors asked the CA if they could intervene in a case involving the Monetary Board's resolutions ordering the closure of Banco Filipino and its placing under the receivership. The Monetary Board on March 17, 2011 issued Resolution 372-A ordering the immediate closure of Banco Filipino and placing the bank under the control of the Philippine Deposit and Insurance Corporation. On October 27, 2011, the Monetary Board issued another order, Resolution 1635, that gave the go signal to liquidate Banco Filipino. On January 27, 2012, the CA Special Fourteenth Division, acting on a petition for certiorari filed by several the bank's stockholders opposing the bank's closure, nullified Resolution 372-A and ordered Banco Filipino be reopened. However, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, MB, PDIC asked the CA to reconsider its ruling as well as for the 14th Division to inhibit itself. Their request for inhibition was granted, and the case was re-raffled to the CA Seventh Division. The said division in November 2012 overturned the 14th Division's earlier ruling. The depositors, in their petition, said the Seventh Division's ruling was "not lawfully clothed with authority to take over the case" claiming that the BSP, MB, and PDIC failed to show "valid or just reason" for the inhibition. "The issuance of Resolution 1635 did not comply with the provisions of Section 30 of Republic Act No. 7653 otherwise known as the New Central Bank Act of 1993," said the depositors, referring to the section of the law requiring a receiver to notify in writing the board of directors whether it find that a bank should be rehabilitated or not. The petitioners claimed the board of directors of Banco Filipino were not notified of the receiver's findings. "Resolution No. 1635 is bereft of any factual and/or legal basis because it is the fruit of a poisonous tree i.e. Resolution Mo. 372-A, which itself is without any factual and/or legal basis," the petitioners added. They also said the government should not have declared the bank insolvent, saying the bank's closure has divested its depositors of their "hard-earned savings and permanent means of livelihood... which is a serious deprivation of their life and liberty." — DVM, GMA News