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It's about depositors, Yasay says on Banco Filipino woes

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ABS-CBN News

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gqXc31R3k8A?enablejsapi=1"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>MANILA -- Shuttered Banco Filipino&#x27;s legal woes should be about its former depositors, former foreign affairs secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr said Tuesday, after he was briefly detained over his dealings for the lender.Yasay served as director of Banco Filipino and was tasked to negotiate a rehabilitation plan with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas due to his background as former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.He refused to discuss in detail the charge against him for violation of banking laws.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/23/19/fight-for-justice-begins-ex-foreign-affairs-chief-yasay-posts-bail">&#x27;Fight for justice begins&#x27;: Ex-foreign affairs chief Yasay posts bail</a></li></ul>&quot;This is not about me. This is not about Bobby Aguirre,&quot; Yasay told ANC&#x27;s Headstart, referring to a former official of the bank.&quot;This is about what the Bangko Sentral, as regulator of the banking industry, is doing, where whatever it does will always have a negative impact on the public, particularly the depositors,&quot; he said.&quot;This is really about the depositors who have become victims of the irregularities, corruption and other arbitrary actions of the BSP. This is what it&#x27;s all about,&quot; he said.When it closed down again in 2010, Banco Filipino was the &quot;most regulated&quot; lender in the country, with a comptroller co-managing the bank in behalf of the Monetary Board.&quot;Not a single cent under the comptrollership of the Bangko Sentral can be spent by the Banco Filipino or any official of Banco Filipino for any particular purpose or objective can be approved or released without the approval of the comptrollers. They were there all along,&quot; he said.Yasay said the rehabilitation plan was never implemented because Bangko Sentral wanted the bank to drop the P18.5-B damage suit against the regulator.&quot;We sued Bangko Sentral and the central bank precisely because the damage that we sustained was not only a damage or prejudice to the bank itself but to the depositors. But we&#x27;re doing this also for and behalf of the depositors,&quot; he said.He said Bangko Sentral wanted to close Banco Filipino from the very beginning.&quot;And who are prejudiced? The depositors. And who does Bangko Sentral blame at this point in time? The owners and stockholders and officers. But that&#x27;s a complete deception and that is the corruption and illegality and arbitrariness that I am trying to expose,&quot; he said.

Yasay served as director of Banco Filipino and was tasked to negotiate a rehabilitation plan with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas due to his background as former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yasay served as director of Banco Filipino and was tasked to negotiate a rehabilitation plan with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas due to his background as former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.