J. FERNANDO U. Campaña, dismissed former vice president of
the Government Service Insurance System for International Operations, was
charged with graft before the Sandiganbayan on Thursday in connection with the
alleged illegal grant of a surety bond worth $10 million to Ecobel Land Inc. in
1998.
Based on the information filed by Assistant Special
Prosecutor III Omar L. Sagadal, Campaña's actions allowed Ecobel to secure a
dollar loan worth $9.31 million from Bear, Stearns International Ltd., a
London-based financial institution, despite posting insufficient collateral.
The loan was for the construction of the Ecobel Tower
Condominium.
Campaña was originally named in another graft charge filed in
2000 along with Alex Vencerina, senior vice president for field operations of
the GSIS, over the same transaction. He was dropped as a defendant after
investigation showed that he had not been involved in the GSIS' approval of the
surety bond.
A reinvestigation by the Ombudsman however revealed that
Campaña issued, without authority, three documents certifying that the surety
bond was genuine and will be transferred to the lender upon Ecobel's request;
that GSIS was engaged in the insurance business and its transactions were
guaranteed by the Philippine government; and confirming the existence of a loan
transaction between Bear and Stearns and Ecobel which supposedly facilitated the
drawdown of the $9.31 million loan.
In 2000, after having been informed that the surety bond had
been cancelled by the GSIS central office due to irregularities, Campaña still
accepted the premium payment from Ecobel in the amount of $330,004. This last
action, the Ombudsman said, caused "extreme prejudice and exposure to injury" on
the state pension fund and, by extension, the Philippine government.
- Peter J.G. Tabingo
