Congress leaders mixed on Landbank-DBP merger

MANILA, Philippines - Congress leaders have opposing views on the presidential order that jumpstarted the merger of the Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

For House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., President Aquino’s Executive Order (EO) 198 that merged the two state banks “came as a surprise.”

“I think the merger should not have been done just like that,” Belmonte said.

“We’ve been talking about this merger for quite sometime so this EO came as a surprise to us,” he added.

The chamber, he said, would look at the legal basis of the merger, which will result into Landbank becoming the country’s second biggest lender in asset terms.

The Speaker also said Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima should explain why he pushed for the merger through an executive action instead of passing a law through Congress.

But Senate President Franklin Drilon disagreed.

“These are two entities which are created by law, but which the President was able to merge. Why? Because of the law that I authored, the GOCC Reform Act,” Drilon said separately.

Purisima is ex-officio member of the Governance Commission on Government-owned and -Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) created under Republic Act 10149.

The law, Drilon said, delegated to the President the power to merge, close or re-organize GOCCs such as Landbank and DBP, upon recommendation by the GCG.

“The basis is the fact that the DBP and Landbank are duplicating each other’s functions,” Drilon said.

“This is precisely one of the grounds why we authorized the President to act on and meger even if there is no amendment to the charter of these two laws,” he explained.