The chairman and president of the closed Rural Bank of Cajidiocan (Romblon), Inc. was convicted of three counts of falsification of public documents in a decision promulgated on 15 April 2019 by Judge Ma. Christina de Pio Lim of Branch 24 of the Metropolitan Trial Court of Manila.
Angeles R. Robis was sentenced to suffer imprisonment of six months up to two years, four months and one day. The court also ordered the former rural bank executive to pay a fine of Php 5,000 for each count.
The conviction stemmed from a criminal complaint filed in 2008 by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Office of Special Investigation (OSI) against Mr. Robis for submitting to the BSP three verified quarterly Consolidated Statements of Condition for the year 2006 that reflected non-existent deposits in the bank’s Cash in Bank account.
In 2003, in an attempt to provide proof of the deposits, Mr. Robis presented to the BSP falsified Certificates of Time Deposit totaling Php 45.3 million supposedly issued by Landbank of the Philippines’ UN Avenue Branch in Manila. However, OSI’s verification showed that the time deposit accounts only had a balance of about Php 285,000.
It was established during the trial that the non-existent deposits, which were reported in the Cash in Bank account upon his instructions, represented funds collected for the rural bank by a finance company owned and controlled by Mr. Robis and his family.
The funds, which included loan payments as well as remittances and fees that were supposed to have been received by RB Cajidiocan, were only partially or not at all transmitted by his finance company to the rural bank.
This resulted in the eventual depletion of the deposit funds of the bank, which led to its inability to service the withdrawals of its depositors. Consequently, the BSP’s Monetary Board ordered the closure of the rural bank and placed it under the receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation on 08 February 2007.
In April 2018, Branch 41 of the Regional Trial Court of Manila also sentenced Mr. Robis to suffer imprisonment for a maximum period of 10 years for the same falsified financial statement that declared non-existent deposit accounts. (PR)
