In response, Villar’s office said a similar case had been dismissed “for lack of palpable merit” by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2006.

“Clearly, therefore, this case is a rehash, recycled strategy,” read the statement.

Villar’s lawyer Ma. Nalen Rosero-Galang said this was a case of double jeopardy.

“Imagine, a previously dismissed case resurrected to suit the moment,” she said.

“How can a second plunder case be filed anew by a new set of complainants involving the same property?

“We therefore ask: Who are these people? Who are behind them? What are their motives? Even for the sake of argument that there was merit in the second complaint, the farmers should first establish their ownership of the 483-hectare property before the regional trial court.

“Like any other business concern, the Capitol Bank was not spared by the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. As a result, the bank was forced to seek an emergency loan from the BSP in 1998.

“In return, the Capitol Bank assigned to the BSP its receivables and other collaterals in the form of real estate properties. This is in conformity with the BSP requirements and existing applicable laws and regulations.”

A group of farmers from Norzagaray, Bulacan said they charged Senator Villar with plunder in his capacity as stockholder of the family-owned Optimum Development Bank (formerly Capitol Development Bank).

Their lawyers said Senator Villar was charged with plunder because the BSP loan to the bank “involved public funds which was more than P50 million and that the securing of the unpaid loan was done through a series of loans and transactions.”

Named co-respondent was Villar’s wife, Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, ODB president.

Others charged were Anacordita Magno, ODB first vice president; Arturo de los Santos, ODB executive vice president; and Andres Rustia, BSP Department of Loans and Credit, and Asset Management Department managing director.

In their complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman last Sept. 26, the farmers said that Representative Villar and Magno – in their capacity as bank executives – managed to secure a loan from the BSP amounting to almost P1.5 billion – P1.17 billion on April 22, 1998 and P332 million on April 24, 1998.

Based on the promissory notes signed by Rep. Villar and Magno, they promised to pay their loan after six months at an interest rate of 14.957 percent per annum, according to the complaint.

However, the complaint said the bank failed to pay the loan and a deed of real estate mortgage on a 485-hectare agricultural land in Norzagaray, Bulacan was entered into by the bank and Manila Brickworks, Inc., represented by De los Santos, in favor of the BSP, represented by Rustia.

“Records show that Lots 1-9 titles of the real estate mortgage were issued through the relocation plan of Lots 1-9 Sc-11202-D as surveyed for Palmera Homes, Inc. dated April 27, 1995. Palmera Homes is one of the many subdivisions owned by Senator Villar and his wife, Cynthia,” read the complaint.

The farmers are disputing ownership of the 484-hectare land before the Malolos Regional Trial Court.

“But it was only in 2007 that the complainant-farmers learned about the so-called nine transfer certificate of titles (TCT) covering the 484 hectares of land which is now being claimed by the BSP as their property after the foreclosure proceedings it conducted against the CDB,” the farmers said in a statement.

“The complainant-farmer learned about the BSP’s claim when they filed before the Malolos RTC a reconstitution of their land titles after the records of land titles in Norzagaray were burned in a fire that destroyed the building which houses the Registry of Deeds.”

In the case before the Bulacan RTC, the farmers questioned the TCTs in the BSP’s possession since the date of issuance of the sales patent on July 17, 1944 and the date of issuance of the original certificate title on July 25, 1944 “took place when there was no civil government in the Philippines,” which was then under Japanese occupation.

At the Senate, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Nacionalista Party secretary-general, said they would like the proper committees to handle the investigation into the charges against Villar.

“I think all the businesses of Senator Villar are declared and they are easy to see,” he said.

“But he will not be the only one to answer all the cases against him but his companies as well.”

‘Palace can’t wash its hands’

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday Malacañang could not wash its hands of the issue of double funding for the C-5 Road extension project since it was responsible for the disbursement of government funds.

“When the first appropriation was released out of the two funds for the same project, they said the other one was put on hold, meaning savings,” he said.

“Who uses savings? The one who holds the money. Maybe (we should) ask the President to assure the people she’ll not misuse the money for purposes for which it was not intended.”

Former budget secretary Benjamin Diokno said the funds could even be used for the 2010 national elections.

“Like what they did in public works in the 2008 budget, P17 billion was added by the congressmen and senators, while P9 billion was cut from foreign-assisted projects,” he said.

“You can release that in the last quarter of 2009 in time for the first quarter of 2010,” he said.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said she would file a bill to promote transparency and accountability in passing the budget.

“In 2009, President Arroyo may release these P11.5-billion insertions,” she said.

“By 2010, each project may continue to be implemented. Hence, I strongly suspect that most of these secret projects are going to be used by incumbent legislators for the 2010 elections.”

At Malacañang, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza and Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. debunked claims that the Palace could benefit from the double allocation, since the P200 million added on could become part of President Arroyo’s discretionary funds.

Andaya said the controversy should be kept in the Senate and that the charge that Mrs. Arroyo would use the savings for other purposes was pure speculation and an attempt to muddle the issue.

“While the search for truth on the C-5 issue touches on aspects of budget execution, it is, however, unfair to make the Office of the President part of collateral damage of an intra-chamber dispute,” he said.

Andaya said DBM did not release the P200 million after discovering the double allocation.

Malacañang could not use the “impounded” P200 million for political gains, he added.

Those responsible “should face the music and must not bail out by blaming others for the mistake they committed,” Andaya said. – Edu Punay, Aurea Calica

The Philippine Star

Allow us to clarify that the two claimants referred to in the article as a “farmers group,” namely, Gina Jarvana and Valentina Amador, are (and were) not farmers in the disputed farmlands. In fact, they belong to a group being used to stop the genuine farmers’ groups from filing a case against spouses Sen. Manuel Villar and Rep. Cynthia Villar in connection with the farmlands in question.

In December 2007, we found out that our farmlands were among those mortgaged by the Villars to the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). We learned of this after discovering in the Register of Deeds that our title to the farmlands had been recalled by officials of Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) and Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO)-LMS Malolos. (In connection with this, we have filed a case with the Ombudsman against these government officials.)

Later, we wrote Senator Villar regarding the farmlands, but he ignored us. So, four months ago, we filed a case with the Ombudsman against the Villars. Until now, we are still waiting for an order requiring the Villars to submit their counter-affidavit. It is not true, therefore, for them to say that the charges are a rehash of a dismissed case.

The Villars got P2.8 billion; their spokesperson said the amount was P1.7 billion only; while the report said it was P1.5 billion. Whichever is the correct figure, there still would be an overpricing, given the fact that the assessed value of the property in question was only P2.00 per sq m at the time of purchase. Multiply land area (7,150,000 sq m) by P2.00, the value of the property would be P14.3 million only.

Three farmers’ groups had claims to the property which includes (1) alienable and disposable lands, (2) the ancestral domain (claimed by Dumagat tribal folk), and (3) public forest. Not a single hectare is mentioned as owned by a Villar corporation. This puts in question the statement of Rene Carreon, the BSP assistant governor for monetary operations, that the bank is still trying to thresh out the ownership questions on the property so they could sell it, possibly back to the Villars. The fact is, a surveyor hired by the Villars made a report (dated June 19, 1995) stating that there were registered claimants to the land.

We would like to ask Carreon: Why did the BSP approve the loan and collaterals? Why did he sign the Consolidation of Ownership (dated Jan. 31, 2003) declaring that the BSP bought the farmlands at an auction sale for only P26,158,200? Was he aware that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources conducted an investigation upon a complaint of the Dumagat community, which led to the filing of a petition for annulment of the title of Manila Brickworks Inc., for being a fake?

Manila Brickworks Inc. was dissolved 35 years ago. How can it act as mortgagor in behalf of the Villars? On the other hand, how can lawyer Salvador Mallana, who represents Jarvana and Amador, say that Capitol Bank, which was sold to RCBC Savings Bank on Aug. 25, 1998, is now Optimum Development Bank?

JESSIE CAMPUGAN, ROBERT TORRES, RODGER TORRES

Charges vs Villar not rehashed – INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

On August 17, 1998 Joker Arroyo spoke before his peers and charged the new Speaker with violations of the Constitution and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, or R.A. 3019, in all of ten specific instances. The fourth charge of corruption stated by Arroyo was about the Capitol Bank’s receipt of financial accommodations from the Bangko Sentral between 1992 and 1998, when Mrs. Cynthia Villar was its CEO, and her husband Manuel was a congressman from Las Piñas, and now, Speaker of the House.

Sometime last week, at just about the same time that now Senator Arroyo was defending his by now good friend and fellow Wednesday dining companion, Senate President Manuel Villar, on charges of conflict of interest discovered because of a 200 million peso “singit” in the 2008 national budget, a story appeared in one of the national dailies. It said that a certain Gina Jarvina and Valentin Amador, representing several farmers of Norzagaray, filed charges of probable plunder against Villar, his wife Cynthia, now congresswoman of the lone district of Las Piñas, along with Anacordita Magno, first vice-president of Capitol Development Bank, Arturo de los Santos, executive vice-president of Optimum Development Bank, and Andres Rustia, managing director in charge of the Department of Loans and Credit as well as the Assets Management Department of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, in connection with an unpaid loan from the BSP amounting to almost P1.5 billion.

Cynthia Villar was charged in her capacity as president of the Capitol Development Bank (now Optimum Development Bank) who was one of the signatories in the P1.5 billion loan, while Senate President Manuel Villar was made respondent for being a shareholder in the family-owned bank.

The plunder case was filed last Friday by a group of farmers whose ownership of some 484 hectares of agricultural lands in Norzagaray, Bulacan is being disputed by the Bangko Sentral before the Regional Trial Court of Malolos. Complainants are assisted by their lawyer Sergio Angeles of the Angeles, Golla & Associates which holds office in Eagle’s Nest, Sumulong Highway, Barangay Sta. Cruz, Antipolo City.

Based on that complaint, pertinent facts of which were confirmed to this writer by the investigative journalist Joker Arroyo commissioned in 1998, this is the story of the case:

Mrs. Cynthia Villar and Ditas Magno (once introduced to this writer by then Speaker Villar), president and vice-president of Capitol Development Bank, managed to secure a loan from the Bangko Sentral amounting to one and a half billion pesos in two tranches: 1.17 billion on 22 April 1998, and 332 million on 24 April,1998.

Based on the promissory notes signed by Villar and Magno on the two mentioned dates, they promised to pay their loan after six months or 180 days at an interest rate of 14.957 percent per annum. Upon maturity however, the bank and/or the signatories to the loan accommodation failed to pay.

Instead, they settled the loan through a dacion en pago of 483.97 hectares in Norzagaray, Bulacan, the same property that the complainants now before the Ombudsman are claiming to be lawfully theirs. At the time of the dacion, the zonal value assigned by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which is supposed to approximate actual market value, was 60 pesos per square meter or 600,000 pesos per hectare. Those 484 hectares should therefore be worth 290 million pesos, but it was used to settle an account from the Bangko Sentral of 1.5 billion pesos! Can you beat that?

In fine, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, fiduciary trustee of the people of the Republic of the Philippines, issuer of legal tender used by its benighted residents within the metes and bounds of the same Republic, now holds assets valued at 290 million, which “erased” liability of the Villars worth one and a half billion, or five times the value of the property now in its possession. In effect, the Bangko Sentral lost 1.210 billion of the people’s money to some very, very wise guys, for and in behalf of a hopelessly bankrupt Capitol Development Bank.

The deed of real estate mortgage was dated June 29, 2001 for the 483.973 hectares (484 has.) of agricultural land in Norzagaray, Bulacan which was used as payment for the P1.5 billion loan of CDB in April 1998. By this time, Manuel Villar had ceased to be Speaker of the House, and was already a candidate for senator of the realm under newly-proclaimed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s People Power Movement ticket, in the “unusual” company of Joker Arroyo, his erstwhile tormentor-rival in 1998. Both won, Joker Arroyo for his tagline “Uubusin ang corrupt!” and Manuel Villar as “Mr. Sipag at Tiyaga”.

The perfect corporate crime, with the people of the Republic holding land one-fifth the value of the monies it lent? That’s not the end of the story, though.

It was only in 2007 that the complainant-farmers learned about the so-called nine transfer certificate of titles (TCT) covering the 484 hectares of land now being claimed by the BSP as their property after the foreclosure proceedings it conducted against the CDB.

The complainant-farmers, whose forebears had been cultivating the land since the turn of the last century, learned about the BSP’s claim only when they filed before the Malolos City Regional Trial Court for reconstitution of their land titles after the records of their titles in Norzagaray were burned in a fire that destroyed the building which houses the local Register of Deeds.

The complainants questioned the validity of TCTs in the possession of BSP since the date of issuance of the sales patent on July 17, 1944 and the date of issuance of the original certificate title (OCT) on July 25, 1944 “took place when there was no civil government in the Philippines.”

The complainants added that Commonwealth Act 141, as amended, maintained that “authorizing the issuance of sales patent was illegal and inoperative during the Japanese occupation.”

Sa madaling salita, “peke” pa ang mga titulo ng lupa na ibinayad sa Bangko Sentral!

Niloko na nga sa over-valued na halaga, naloko pa ang Bangko Sentral, na binayaran ng “mickey mouse” torrens title, issued during the Japanese occupation. At ninakawan ng lupain ang mga mahihirap na magsasaka. Will wonders never cease?

When the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman was printed in a broadsheet, the spokesperson of the Villar companies, or was it the Nacionalista spokesman, former Rep. Gilbert Remulla of Cavite, the young man who would be senator of the realm, called it “old hat”, “recycled issues” that were already dismissed by the Ombudsman. “Pulitika lang ‘yan”, he scoffed. Yet a check with the agency records in the pink building along Agham Road in Quezon City shows that what was brought before the graft prosecutor was a mere letter-complaint, and this is the first time that a formal complaint of plunder regarding the transaction was received by them.

The signatories of the promissory notes for which Bangko Sentral loaned out 1.5 billion of the people’s money were Mrs. Cynthia Villar, not yet a congresswoman at the time of the transaction, and Ditas Magno, with Arturo de los Santos participating at the time of the dacion. The signatory for the Bangko Sentral was Andres Rustia.

Yet, the complainants and their lawyer included Senate President Manuel Villar in the complaint, who at the time of the transaction and its episodes, was either a congressman or already Speaker of the House. The lawyer explained that though Villar was not a signatory, the circumstances in the irregular and unusually generous transaction suggest clearly that the latter must have exerted undue influence or pressure upon the officers of the Bangko Sentral.

While that contention may be legally debatable, would Manny Villar leave his wife the congresswoman to answer this complaint singly? Can he simply shrug these charges off as “recycled” and “old” or leave the explaining to his faithful political acolytes, as he did the mystery of the 200 million double entry which would cross through properties he and his wife own, and for which monies of the Republic were used to compensate for road right of way?

Ah! How the rich and the mighty screw us all. Using the money of the people in ways more ingenious than “sipag at tiyaga” could ever achieve.

Now a postscript. I asked the staff of Senator Jamby Madrigal, just before I started pounding the keys of my laptop, if their announced complaint before the Senate Ethics Committee had anything to do with this Norzagaray caper that Joker Arroyo, then congressman from Makati, mentioned in his August 1998 speech. The answer was negative.

What they have on Villar is about C-5, as politically explosive as C-4, and how the “King Balimbing”, as they quoted me, used his power and influence in more ways than once, to promote personal and corporate interest (in a completely closed family corporation).

:: Malaya – The National Newspaper ::

The farmers claimed the transfer of the farm lands from Capitol Development Bank, formerly owned by the Villars, to the BSP was illegal. The contested Norzagaray property also includes a controversial sanitary landfill project that had been put on hold.

Villar’s camp was quick to refute the charge as a rehash of a similar case filed by another group of farmers on the same property which was dismissed by the Ombudsman for “lack of merit” two years ago.

“For the record, the titles assigned to the BSP to cover Capitol Bank’s emergency loan were clean and genuine, effectively extinguishing our P1.7 billion loan from the BSP,” said Villar’s spokesperson Nalen Galang.

In a press statement, however, the farmers’ lawyer, Salvador Mallana, said Capitol Development Bank (now Optimum Development Bank), had used contested titles to settle its BSP loans in 2001.

Mallana said his clients, Gina Jarvina and Valentin Amador, were among the farmers who filed a case against the BSP claiming ownership of 483,000 hectares of agricultural lands in Norzagaray.

The lawyer said the farmers only came to know of the transfer of their claimed farmlands last year, when they filed for the reconstitution of land titles that were burned in a fire that destroyed the Registry of Deeds in Norzagaray.

The farmers said the transfer of the titles to the BSP was illegal.

They decided to charge the Villars with plunder because the BSP loan to Capitol Bank exceeded P50 million.

But Villar’s spokesperson said they found it “suspicious” that the plunder suit was filed even before the farmers established their ownership of the land.

“Who are these people? How can a second plunder case be filed by a new set of complainants against the Villars involving the same property?” said Galang.

Galang said Capitol Bank was forced to seek help from the BSP due to the Asian financial crisis which hit the country in 1997.

“In return (for the emergency loan), the bank assigned to the BSP its receivables and other collateral in the form of real estate properties,” he said.

Aside from the Villar couple, others included in the plunder suit were Capitol Bank first vice president Anacordita Magno, ODB executive vice president Arturo de los Santos and BSP managing director Andres Rustia.

Rene Carreon, BSP assistant governor for monetary operations, earlier said they were still trying to thresh out the ownership questions on the Norzagaray property so they could sell it. He revealed that they were considering selling the land back to the Villars.

Meanwhile, Villar’s problems in the southern flank of Manila concerning a controversial road project fund insertion, has sparked new calls for his replacement from the top Senate post.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, whose five-member block in the Senate’s majority coalition is being wooed by Villar’s critics, said he would study whether a leadership change in the Senate was a necessary move.

“We are studying it because it’s a very serious matter. It’s a big responsibility to change a leadership which should not be changed just because of personalities,” said Angara in an interview over dzBB radio

INQUIRER.net

The plunder complaint was filed by a group of farmers whose ownerships of some 484 hectares of agricultural lands in Norzagaray, Bulacan are being disputed by the BSP before the Malolos Regional Trial Court.

In a statement from the group’s lawyers Monday, the case stemmed from an alleged P1.5 billion unpaid loan by the Villar-owned Capitol Development Bank (now Optimum Development Bank) from the BSP.

Rep. Villar was charged in her capacity as president of the bank, while Sen. Villar was made respondent for being a shareholder in the said bank.

Also included in the charges are Anacordita Magno, first vice president of Capitol Development Bank (CDB); Arturo de los Santos, executive vice president of Optimum Development Bank and Andres Rustia, managing director and in-charge of the Department of Loans and Credit as well as the Asset Management Department of BSP.

The complainants said that records showed that Villar and Magno, in their capacity as bank executives, managed to secure a loan from the BSP amounting to almost P1.5 billion, broken down as follows: P1.17 billion on April 22, 1998 and P332 million on April 24, 1998.

Based on the promissory notes signed by Villar and Magno on the two mentioned dates, they promised to pay their loan after six months or 180 days at an interest rate of 14.957 percent per annum, the statement said.

Farmers complain

The bank, however, failed to pay the loan and as a result, a deed of real estate mortgage was entered into by the bank and Manila Brickworks, Inc., which were represented by de los Santos, in favor of the BSP, represented by Rustia, and the deed’s subject was the contested lot in Norzagaray.

“Records show that Lots 1-9 titles of the real estate mortgage were issued through the relocation plan of Lots 1-9 Sc-11202-D as surveyed for Palmera Homes, Inc. dated April 27, 1995. Palmera Homes is one of the many subdivisions owned by Senator Villar and his wife, Cynthia,” the statement said, “but it was only in 2007 that the complainant-farmers learned about the so-called nine transfer certificate of titles (TCT) covering the 484 hectares of land which is now being claimed by the BSP as their property after the foreclosure proceedings it conducted against the CDB.”

“The complainant-farmer learned about the BSP’s claim when they filed before the Malolos RTC a reconstitution of their land titles after the records of land titles in Norzagaray were burned in a fire that destroyed the building which houses the Registry of Deeds,” the statement said.

In the case, the complainants maintained that the deed or real estate mortgage was illegal, because the borrower and the mortgagor were both represented by a single person – de los Santos.

The complainants also questioned the TCTs in the possession of BSP since the date of issuance of the sales patent on July 17, 1944 and the date of issuance of the original certificate title (OCT) on July 25, 1944 “took place when there was no civil government in the Philippines,” which was then under Japanese occupation in World War II.

The lawyers said that they chose to file a plunder case because the BSP loan to the bank “involved public funds which was more than P50 million and that the securing of the unpaid loan was done through series of loans and transactions.”

Plunder complaint filed vs Manny, Cynthia Villar | ABS-CBN News Online Beta

The same records show that the remaining 22 senators are millionaires and that the ’second-richest’ lawmaker in terms of net worth is Sen. Jamby Madrigal – who is still embroiled in an inheritance battle with other relatives – with P146.5 million.

Villar, a Tondo resident who made a fortune from mass housing, has a net worth of P1,041,383,9246.

“Poorest,” but still a millionaire, is jailed Sen . Antonio Trillanes IV with P2.6 million net worth.

Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., an actor, is the third richest with net worth of P118 million.

Aside from lawmaking, Revilla is still making money from television and movies, the latest of which is his top-grossing film “Resiklo.”

Sen. Mar Roxas, who is also said to be a presidential ‘wannabe’ in the 2010 elections, is fourth with a total asset of P172.4 million.

He however has a total liability of P61.7 million, or a total net worth of P110.7 million.

Fifth is Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, with P98.9 million; Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, P89.4 million; Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, P83.2 million; Sen. Pia Cayetano, P76.4 million; Sen. Loren Legarda, P46 million; Sen. Edgardo Angara, P44.1 million; and Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, P28.2 million.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is also expected as one of those who would run in the 2010 presidential elections, ranked 12th with net worth of P27.3 million; followed by Sen. Richard Gordon,P27 million; Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, P23 million; Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, P16.2 ,million; Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, P14 million; Sen. Francis Pangilinan, P13 million; Sen. Gregorio Honasan, P12.2 million; Sen. Lito Lapid, P12 million; Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., P11.5 million; Sen. Joker Arroyo, P11 million; and Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, P7.5 million. – GMANews.TV

GMANews.TV