A plunder complaint was filed Friday against Senate President Manuel Villar, his wife Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, and three others before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection to an alleged unpaid loan from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) by a bank the Villars own.

The plunder complaint was filed by a group of farmers whose ownerships of some 484 hectares of agricultural lands in Norzagaray, Bulacan are being disputed by the BSP before the Malolos Regional Trial Court.

In a statement from the group's lawyers Monday, the case stemmed from an alleged P1.5 billion unpaid loan by the Villar-owned Capitol Development Bank (now Optimum Development Bank) from the BSP.

Rep. Villar was charged in her capacity as president of the bank, while Sen. Villar was made respondent for being a shareholder in the said bank.

Also included in the charges are Anacordita Magno, first vice president of Capitol Development Bank (CDB); Arturo de los Santos, executive vice president of Optimum Development Bank and Andres Rustia, managing director and in-charge of the Department of Loans and Credit as well as the Asset Management Department of BSP.

The complainants said that records showed that Villar and Magno, in their capacity as bank executives, managed to secure a loan from the BSP amounting to almost P1.5 billion, broken down as follows: P1.17 billion on April 22, 1998 and P332 million on April 24, 1998.

Based on the promissory notes signed by Villar and Magno on the two mentioned dates, they promised to pay their loan after six months or 180 days at an interest rate of 14.957 percent per annum, the statement said.

Farmers complain

The bank, however, failed to pay the loan and as a result, a deed of real estate mortgage was entered into by the bank and Manila Brickworks, Inc., which were represented by de los Santos, in favor of the BSP, represented by Rustia, and the deed's subject was the contested lot in Norzagaray.

"Records show that Lots 1-9 titles of the real estate mortgage were issued through the relocation plan of Lots 1-9 Sc-11202-D as surveyed for Palmera Homes, Inc. dated April 27, 1995. Palmera Homes is one of the many subdivisions owned by Senator Villar and his wife, Cynthia," the statement said, "but it was only in 2007 that the complainant-farmers learned about the so-called nine transfer certificate of titles (TCT) covering the 484 hectares of land which is now being claimed by the BSP as their property after the foreclosure proceedings it conducted against the CDB."

"The complainant-farmer learned about the BSP’s claim when they filed before the Malolos RTC a reconstitution of their land titles after the records of land titles in Norzagaray were burned in a fire that destroyed the building which houses the Registry of Deeds," the statement said.

In the case, the complainants maintained that the deed or real estate mortgage was illegal, because the borrower and the mortgagor were both represented by a single person - de los Santos.

The complainants also questioned the TCTs in the possession of BSP since the date of issuance of the sales patent on July 17, 1944 and the date of issuance of the original certificate title (OCT) on July 25, 1944 "took place when there was no civil government in the Philippines," which was then under Japanese occupation in World War II.

The lawyers said that they chose to file a plunder case because the BSP loan to the bank "involved public funds which was more than P50 million and that the securing of the unpaid loan was done through series of loans and transactions."