The Cat Is Out Of The Bag

This photo looks like former secretary of Trade and Industry  Peter Garrucho making an announcement and Senator Serge Osmeña III waiting to let the cat out of the bag. Actually, Peter was doing an introduction while Serge and other classmates wait to sing "The Young Ones" at the La Salle Alumni Homecoming last March 2011.

But the senator did let the cat out with the revelation of another alleged anomalous transaction involving the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and businessman Roberto V. Ongpin.  Judith Balea of ABS-CBN News reports:

Osmeña said in a statement that DBP extended $90 million to a firm controlled by the former trade minister in December 2008 "despite the absence of a loan application."

Worse, the senator said, the Ongpin firm was not licensed to do business in the Philippines and had a capitalization of only $2 at the time the loan was granted.

 "I categorically deny these new charges of Senator Osmeña and I suggest that he replace his research team with more competent people.  There is absolutely no basis nor truth to any of his allegations," says Roberto Ongpin who served as Minister of Trade under the late President Ferdinand Marcos.