endIndex:
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 18) The Development Bank of the Philippines did not give the Lopez Group of Companies a free pass from its soured ₱1.6 billion loans in the early 2000s.
Dumper PTDA Party-list Rep. Claudine Diana Bautista, who asked for the House inquiry, said the write-off cost the Filipino people s money.
However, the state-owned bank denied writing off the unpaid loans of the Lopez family for its current and former subsidiaries Benpres Holdings, Bayan Telecommunications, Maynilad Water, and Central CATV (also known as SkyCable) when it sold these debts in an asset sale in 2006.
DBP President Emmanuel Herbosa said the non-performing debts – or those which are behind amortizations for over 180 days – were sold to Lehman Brothers Asia Limited on October 16, 2006, which comes years after the 1997 Asia Financial Crisis and precedes the Global Financial Crisis from 2007 to 2009.