THE Bangko Sentral has rejected granting a court-ordered emergency assistance that the Banco Filipino has been seeking for since December.

??t should be stressed that the unconditional release of the special liquidity facility or emergency loan to Banco Filipino without the benefit of security or collateral clearly involves the exercise of discretion of the Bangko Sentral and its Monetary Board,? the central bank?s counsel, Villaraza Cruz Marcelo & Angangco, told the Makati Regional Trial Court in a filing last week.

The central bank position was given in answer to a new complaint filed by the thrift bank controlled by polo player Albert ?Bobby? Aguirre, seeking to stop the banking regulator from selling at a public auction nearly 2,000 foreclosed Banco Filipino properties.

?Given the great economic distress that the world is undergoing right now, it is certain that the said auction sale of [Banco Filipino?s] properties would cause panic amongst its clients and shall surely result in a bank run,? said Banco Filipino counsel and former SEC chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr.

It is because of the anticipated run that Banco Filipino now wants Makati RTC Judge Winlove Dumayas to order the Bangko Sentral to release an unspecified amount in the form of an emergency loan to the thrift bank.

The new complaint, and the monetary assistance, is apparently part of the overarching strategy of the troubled thrift bank to force the Bangko Sentral to pay P18.8 billion in damages it is claiming for the ?illegal? closure it suffered during the Marcos years.

The Bangko Sentral said the grant of an emergency loan was ?irrelevant and immaterial? to the new Banco Filipino complaint, which seeks to enjoin the banking regulator from auctioning the thrift bank?s foreclosed properties.

According to Yasay, even the Banco Filipino headquarters at the corner of Paseo de Roxas and De la Rosa street in Makati?s Legaspi Village has also been mortgaged to the Bangko Sentral.

Heard through the grapevine

Meralco chairman Manuel Lopez and his nephew ABS-CBN chairman Eugenio Lopez III were absent during Friday?s board meeting of First Philippine Holdings, when the company ratified the sale of the Lopezes? 20 percent stake in Meralco to the PLDT Group.

The day before, the two were also curiously absent during the signing of the sale agreement between their family and the PLDT Group.

(Web site: www.cocktales.ph; e-mail: cocktales_mst@pldtdsl.net)