House panel may OK LANDBANK charter this month

A HOUSE of Representatives committee may approve within this month a measure providing for a new charter for Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) that will hike its capitalization to P1 trillion.

The House banks committee will likely approve the measure, which aims to boost LANDBANK’s ability to provide increased financial support to the agriculture sector via the capital hike, within the next two weeks, Manila Rep. Irwin C. Tieng, the panel’s chief, said.

“I think we still have another hearing. I don’t think we have enough quorum for a vote [today],” he told BusinessWorld on Wednesday in mixed English and Filipino. “Maybe by next week or the following week, we can have the voting for the charter.”

Several proposals on LANDBANK’s new charter are pending in Congress. The Senate’s version of the state-run lender’s charter is at the plenary level, while counterpart bills at the House remain pending at the committee level for consolidation.

Mr. Tieng said his committee already has drafted a consolidated bill, which is now pending approval by its members. A House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the panel wants the substitute bill to be similar to the Senate version to fast-track its approval.

The draft measure raises LANDBANK’s authorized capital stock to P1 trillion from the current P800 billion, with the National Government mandated to own 20% of its shares at all times, with P163 billion of the capital being paid from the state’s coffers, according to a copy of the bill’s fact sheet obtained by BusinessWorld.

The bill also allows the lender to issue common and preferred shares of stocks as approved by the Finance secretary, and secure loans from domestic and foreign sources with presidential approval.

It gives LANDBANK the authority to issue debt instruments up to an aggregate amount not exceeding 10 times its paid-in capital and surplus at any given time. The draft also allows the state-run bank to finance properties con-nected to government projects. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio