Tonette Orejas
Central Luzon Desk

STA. RITA, Pampanga – A day after Christmas, 86-year-old Benjamin Mariano went to the Rural Bank of Sta. Rita in Barangay San Vicente here, wanting to get a word from the owner whose house sits beside the bank.

Aided by his bamboo cane, Mariano stood at the bank’s façade for two hours starting 9 a.m. on Friday. Coming and waiting have become a sort of a daily rite for this old man since Dec. 19 when the bank declared a holiday.

He said he has memorized the bank’s public announcement, which was printed in English and Kapampangan on a tarpaulin that was almost as big as the door in the building.

Trust

“I trust Turing but what will happen to my money?” said Mariano, a World War II veteran.

He has deposited all his pension funds from the Philippine government and retirement money from the defunct Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police in a savings account at the Rural Bank of Sta. Rita.

“All my savings are there. I want to know directly from Turing what’s happening. Are they closing for good or what?” Mariano said.

Turing is Dr. Victoriano de Castro, the bank’s president. The house’s caretaker does not know where De Castro went.

The Inquirer has been trying to contact De Castro since last week to no avail.

Raymund Laki, president of the Federation of Rural Banks in Pampanga, said De Castro has not left the country.

Aurora Dizon, 63, is in the same fix. A savings account in the bank holds her capital for vegetable trading and money lending.

“I hope I could get my money. It’s the only thing I roll,” Dizon said.

On Friday, she went around collecting the debt payments of vendors holding stalls at the temporary site of the town’s public market. She said she was unsure if she could still go on with her business with the way things have turned out at the bank.

Ana Marie Magtangop also dropped in on Friday to check the latest information. That’s an errand she did for her friend Servitas Agcaoili, a nurse in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Agcaoili has maintained a time deposit at the bank for her children.

“She’s worried because she plans to use that money for a small business when she returns from work abroad,” Magtangop said.

The Rural Bank of Bacolor, located in the City of San Fernando, is in the same situation.

Its president, Mary Anne Naguit, a daughter of De Castro, could not be reached for comment.

The bank’s announcement, posted also on the establishment’s façade, is the same as that of the Rural Bank of Sta. Rita’s. The Bacolor bank was established in 1963. The Sta. Rita bank is more than 50 years old.

“[On] Dec. 19, 2008, the bank was forced to go on voluntary bank holiday due to the unusual heavy withdrawals it experienced as a result of recent news about several rural banks which were closed by the [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] around the country,” the announcement read.

On the same day, the BSP had placed four more banks under the receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.

In a report posted on its website on Dec. 22, the BSP confirmed that the Nation Bank in Bacolod City, Rural Bank of DARBCI in General Santos City, Bicol Development Bank in Legazpi City, and the Rural Bank of Carmen in Carmen, Cebu, were found to have insufficient assets to cover their liabilities, suffered from severe liquidity problems, and performed unsafe and unsound banking practices.

According to the BSP, the receivership “paved the way for the PDIC to take over the banks’ assets to protect the interest of their depositors and to start processing deposit insurance claims.”

The BSP also put under PDIC receivership the following banks since Dec. 9: Rural Bank of Parañaque, Rural Bank of Bais in Negros Oriental, Pilipino Rural Bank in Cebu, Rural Bank of San Jose in Batangas, Bank of East Asia in Cebu, First Interstate Bank in Tacloban, Philippine Countryside Rural Bank in Cebu, Dynamic Bank (Rural Bank of Calatagan) in Batangas, and San Pablo City Development Bank in Laguna.

The Sta. Rita and Bacolor banks said while they deemed it unfortunate to close during the Christmas season, they have “no choice but to go on holiday to prevent a total depletion of its funds through unabated panic withdrawals.”

Confidence

The two banks also expressed confidence that the assets “shall become the basis” of BSP in determining if they could avail of a loan.

They said they were coordinating with the Monetary Board “to fully safeguard the interest of all its depositors and valued clients.”

The banks did not announce dates when they would resume operations, saying only they would do that “as soon as possible under the supervision of the Bangko Sentral [ng Pilipinas].”

Laki said the two banks have not yet been placed under PDIC receivership. The FRBP has 28 members and “all these are generally stable,” Laki said.

“Their capital is well beyond or within the 10 percent banking requirement,” he said.