Mayor Osmeña Thrashes Bid of 27 BDO Branches to Renew Business Permits

Twenty-seven out of the 28 branches of BDO Unibank Inc. in Cebu City will be operating without business permits after Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña denied Thursday the bank’s applications for renewal.

Osmena said he denied the renewal of their permits because the bank failed and refused to submit the required documents to the city.

Osmena wrote a letter to Joseph Noem Sisican, area operations officer of BDO Unibank in Central Visayas, along with other branch managers, stating the denial of their applications for renewal of mayor’s permit.

In a press conference, Osmeña said he will not order the immediate closure of BDO’s 27 branches to give time to the depositors.

Osmena said he did not include the BDO branch in SM Seaside City Cebu in the denial of mayor’s permit since it only started its operation this year.

Osmena earlier questioned BDO after one branch paid only PHP35 in business taxes and threatened to close the bank.

The BDO went to the Cebu City Regional Trial Court, which issued a temporary restraining order stopping the mayor and the city government from closing the bank.

Osmena said he and the city government will fight this landmark case all the way to the Supreme Court.

”We cannot accept that they only owe us PHP35. I would like to make it clear, if we lose this case, any bank can say they owe us only PHP35. We cannot afford to lose this case,” he said.

Osmena also denied being a bully to SM Property Holdings, which owns BDO.

”The SM “propaganda” is saying I’m a bully. BDO is not the victim. The victim here is the people of Cebu City. A stallholder in Carbon Market pays even more than a BDO branch. I cannot accept that situation,” Osmena said.

”If we lose this case in court, it becomes an excuse for everybody to pay PHP35 in business taxes. I cannot accept that,” he said.

Osmena said the local bank branches are passing everything to their head office in Manila.

”We have to stop these games that the banks are playing with us,” he said.

Osmena said he is fighting this case “not only for Cebu City but also for all the local government units in the country.” Efforts to reach BDO for comments proved futile as of posting time. (PNA)EB