Three courts in General Santos City convicted former officers of the closed Sarangani Rural Bank Inc. (SRBI) for violating the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Manual of Regulations for Banks, the General Banking Law of 2000 and the Revised Penal Code.
The BSP said in a statement the General Santos City Regional Trial Court Branch 60 convicted former SRBI president and manager Francisco Laiz Jr., former loans bookkeeper Marydelle Arbilo, former loans clerk Annalyn Brumo and former account officer Charity Villa for participating in fraudulent transactions with fictitious loans.
Also convicted were the SRBI credit committee members, including former loans supervisor Arsenia dela Cruz and former general bookkeepers Mizpah Santos and Lilibeth Girado.
The court sentenced the accused to six years’ imprisonment and ordered each to pay a fine of P50,000.00, with perpetual disqualification from holding employment in any of the BSP-supervised financial institutions.
Meanwhile, the city’s RTC Branch 55 convicted former technical assistant Justino Tamala Jr. for violating provisions in the BSP’s Manual of Regulations for Banks and for falsification of public and commercial documents.
Tamala was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and to pay a fine of P50,000.00 for each of the five counts of the charges against him with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency.
The Municipal Trial Court Branch 2 in General Santos City convicted Laiz, Arbilo, Brumo, Villa, Dela Cruz, and Santos for falsification of public and commercial documents. They were sentenced to one year and eight months’ imprisonment; and to pay a fine of P3,000.00 each.
State-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) placed SRBI under receivership in 2013.