By Rey E. Requejo

THE Supreme Court has rejected Banco Filipino’s fresh campaign to regain ownership of 17 provincial properties where its branches are located but are owned by another branch of the Aguirre family.

That came about after the Supreme Court’s Second Division granted the consolidated petitions filed by Tala Realty Services and Add International Services Inc., which is controlled by Pedro Aguirre—uncle of Banco Filipino vice chairman Albert Aguirre—and which had sought to reverse the orders issued by the regional trial courts in Cabanatuan, Davao, Urdaneta and Lucena denying Tala’s motions to dismiss the complaints by Banco Filipino.

The Court repeated the ruling it issued on Nov. 22, 2002, that said the trust agreement between Tala and Banco Filipino was void and could not be enforced.

Banco Filipino had been seeking the return of the properties based on the trust agreement it signed with Tala Realty in 1979.

“Under the doctrine of stare decisis, once a court has laid down a principle of law as applicable to a certain state of facts, it will adhere to that principle and apply it to all future cases where the facts are substantially the same,” the Court said in the decision written by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales.

“This Court’s ruling... on the nullity of the trust agreement which Banco Filipino seeks to enforce thus applies to the present petitions.” Associate Justices Leonardo Quisumbing,

Dante Tinga, Presbitero Velasco Jr. and Diosdado Peralta concurred with the ruling.

The thrift bank has filed 17 complaints nationwide for reconveyance of different bank branch properties, claiming that with the provisions of the General Banking Act limiting a bank’s allowable real estate investment to 50 percent of its capital assets, Banco Filipino stockholder Nancy Aguirre in 1979 decided to organize Tala Realty with the help of fellow major stockholders Pedro Aguirre and his brother, then Banco Filipino chairman Tomas Aguirre.

Tala Realty was then established for the purpose of holding and buying real properties in trust for Banco Filipino.

After the transfer of Banco Filipino properties to Tala Realty, the Aguirre’s sister Remedios convinced brother Tomas to endorse his shares in Tala Realty and register them in the name of her controlled corporation, Add International.

To comply with the trust agreement, Banco Filipino sold to Tala Realty some of the properties that Tala simultaneously leased to the bank for 20 years and renewable for another 20 years, with a right of first refusal in the event Tala Realty decided to sell them.

But in August 1992, Tala Realty renounced the trust agreement and claimed the titles over the properties after Banco Filipino allegedly failed to pay the rent.

That prompted Banco Filipino to file several complaints seeking to compel Tala Realty to honor the trust agreement and reconvey the properties.

In its 2002 decision, the Supreme Court had ruled that Banco Filipino could not seek the enforcement of the trust agreement with Tala Realty since its creation was illegal.

The Court noted that Banco Filipino had admitted that Tala Realty was created to circumvent banking rules.