If any of you folks have money in BF or know people who do, tell them to take their money elsewhere. Besides, why put money anywhere else other than BPI or Metrobank? Three words: Non-Performing Loans.

Here are excerpts from Victor Agustin's column today:

AT the rate he is spending the family bank's money, Banco Filipino vice chairperson Albert "Bobby" Aguirre has magnanimously expanded the meaning of private banking.

A new audit by the central bank-installed comptroller says Aguirre and his select group of bank officers spent more than 567 million pesos in the past two years on overseas travel and polo matches in the United Kingdom, Australia and Europe.

Aguirre owns polo fields and maintains "top-quality ponies" in Stedham, a West Sussex village some 50 miles outside London, and in an 8,000-acre (about 3,237.5 hectares) farm in Murrunundi, an outback north of Sydney.

Crass. Total crass. And, adds the report:

noted that the overseas spending spree, covering 2001 and 2002, was conducted amid the thrift bank's "declining liquidity and profitability."

Oh, and they're paying good dime for "consultants", all said about 23 law firms and 33 pr/marketing/management consultants. Some of the numbers are mind-numbing:

? Benny Flores (83,333 pesos a month) ? Manuel Toma Cruz (88,888 pesos a month) ? Hermogenes Concepcion, chairperson of the Government Service Insurance System (55,555 pesos a month) ? Perfecto Yasay, former chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission (222,222 pesos a month) ? former constabulary chief Ramon Montaño (111,111 pesos a month) ? Gregorio Imperial (88,888 pesos a month) ? Jovito Hernandez (323,529 pesos a month) ? Hidelbrando Badiola (143,720 pesos a month) ? Froilan Miranda (102,222 pesos a month)

FYI, a gas boy working the nightshift makes about P200 a night, or about Php 4,000 a month. More reports of fleecing:

At one point, Banco Filipino was shelling out almost 4.9 million pesos a month to maintain its stable of consultants, including 1,169,945 pesos in monthly remuneration extended to Aguirre as a "working director and bank representative to various corporate borrowers."