By Victor C. Agustin
Manila Standard Today
IF UP professor and staunch Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo critic Harry Roque Jr. wants to find GMA loyalists “able to subvert the reform agenda” of his P. Noy idol, all he has to do is look beyond his nose and into the bad loan records of his client Banco Filipino, and there he would find the fingerprints of Occidental Mindoro Rep. Maria Amelita “Girlie” Villarosa.
The former Lakas chairman is still listed as chairman and treasurer of El Grande Development Corp., a sister company of Banco Filipino that borrowed and, according to Monetary Board member and GMA-era press secretary Ignacio Bunye Jr., never repaid the P144 million it took from the wobbly thrift bank.
This is on top of another P200 million non-performing loan that Pilar Development Corp., a real estate developer where Villarosa is also treasurer, obtained from Banco Filipino a decade ago.
In all, over P2.18 billion were borrowed between 2000 and 2001 by Villarosa’s and related companies, a “shocker in violation of existing banking regulations,’ according to the normally phlegmatic Bunye, who writes a column at the Manila Bulletin just like her Monetary Board colleague turned Banco Filipino defender, Nelly Favis-Villafuerte.
But that, as they say, is another story.
Glo-rified rumor
Former SGV chairman Gloria ‘Glo’ Tan-Climaco will step down as independent director of the Philippine National Bank during the next stockholders’ meeting.
Depending on who you talk to, the GMA-era senior presidential consultant for strategic projects had a falling-out with PNB owner Lucio Tan, had been pressured by Finance Secretary and SGV colleague Cesar Purisima or both.
Tan-Climaco declined to comment on her rumored departure and merely laughed when informed that a no-comment stance usually means “confirmed.”
Money-go-round
• One of the three penthouses in Rizal condominium in Rockwell has been put quietly on the block.
Asking price for the 370-square meter unit, which comes with three parking slots, is P45 million.
Advantages: The condo currently rents out for P250,000 a month or P3 million a year. One of the other two next-door neighbors is Ernie Lopez.
• She was still on the staff box of Business Mirror as editor in chief as of Tuesday, but Lourdes Molina-Fernandez has actually been reporting at TV5’s online division since last week.
(Web site: www.cocktales.ph; e-mail: cocktales_mst@yahoo.com)
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