Company denies causing Export Bank closure

A company reportedly linked to businessman Willian Gatchalian Tuesday disputed the claim of Export and Industry Bank’s former officials that its legal case against the financial institution was what caused merger talks with Banco de Oro Universal Bank to collapse, resulting in the former’s sudden closure.

In an e-mailed statement, Pacific Rehouse Corp. said it felt “unfairly alluded to” in an earlier Philippine Daily Inquirer article where officials of the shuttered bank explained the reasons for their voluntary bank holiday declaration.

“The news articles are intended to find a scapegoat for the closure of EIB and the voluntary placing the same under receivership by Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. due to the inability of the bank to meet its obligations particularly to depositors despite PDIC’s support,” said Peter Salud, president of Pacific Rehouse Corp., one of the claimant companies.

The company, in a statement, explained that several corporations led by Pacific Rehouse filed a case to claim the return of 32,180,000 DMCI shares, which were sold by EIB Securities Inc. without the consent of its owners.

The legal dispute has been running in various levels of the judiciary since the mid-1990s, with the complainants and the bank filing numerous claims and counterclaims since then.

In its most recent decision on the lengthy legal dispute, the RTC, as the execution court, ruled and made a finding that EIB was also liable since EIB Securities Inc. was just an alter ego of the bank and that they were considered one and the same, the company said. This was, however, contested by the bank.

Pacific Rehouse also noted that no less than the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas pointed out that EIB was “marred by numerous cases in court not only the one filed by the corporations.”

“It is also unfair to blame the closure and the placing of the bank under receivership on the case filed by the corporations as the only reason why the deal with BDO did not prosper, the latter being considered the white knight that will rescue the bank,” the company said.

“We are not aware what prompted EIB to surrender its operation, we are not privy to the real reason.”

It also said that the complainants in the case were offered property and cash settlement “at very considerable reduction and was still negotiating when it was taken by surprise of EIB’s surrendering its operations.”

“It is public knowledge that [Export Bank] has been in distress for quite some time and under negotiation for rehabilitation,” it added.