The Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld the indictment of a rural bank president and five others accused of using fraudulent documents to obtain loans from the state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) totaling P390 million.

In a 20-page decision, the appellate court sustained the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) finding of probable cause to prosecute Benjamin Cruz, president and general manager of the defunct Hermosa Savings and Loan Bank Inc. (HSLBI) of Bataan, and five of his associates for large-scale estafa.

Large-scale estafa is a non-bailable offense with a punishment of life imprisonment, as provided for under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code.

Cruz’s co-accused were HSLBI employees Rodolfo Buenaventura, Librado Dio, Nilda Fajardo, Lelaine Fernandez and lawyer Ligaya Cruz, in-house legal counsel of the rural bank.

The six had filed a petition for certiorari before the CA seeking to nullify the Jan. 4, 2005 resolution issued by then Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, but the appellate court dismissed this.

Gonzalez, in that questioned resolution, ordered the prosecution of the six HSLBI officers for large-scale estafa in connection with the 40 loans they secured from DBP on various occasions from 1994 to 2000.

The case stemmed from a complaint by DBP, which cited the results of the examination conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on HSLBI's loan portfolio showing that various loan documents submitted by the rural bank with DBP were tampered.