Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia during a press conference on September 20, 2024 explaining her case against HSBC. | Screenshot from Sugbo News
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has finally spoken up about the case she is facing against a foreign bank at court.
During a recent press conference, Garcia insisted that the ruling from the Supreme Court (SC) telling her to pay her debt to Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) is a personal matter.
The case, which instructed her to pay the London-based bank up to $700,000 (roughly P39 million in today’s rates) in damages and 12 percent legal interest, including P404,560.50 in legal costs, has nothing to do with her capacity as governor, she said.
“This issue really should not have been brought out in light of me being governor of Cebu… Walay labot ang lungsod ani,” Garcia told reporters.
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Along with her lawyers, the governor explained that the loan was taken out in 1996, before she became governor.
During those times, Garcia was residing in Ormoc City where she started her businesses such as gas stations, manpower services, and others under the former Gwen Garcia Codilla (GGC) Corp.
The governor also revealed that she had two lots, each measuring 15 to 20 hectares, that have been used as collateral but the bank apparently refused to accept them, her lawyers said.
Garcia’s legal counsel also stated that the petition by HSBC to revive the decade-old case had already been dismissed by the Taguig Regional Trial Court, Branch 153.
It can be recalled that last week, copies of a Supreme Court ruling from 2023 mandating the governor to settle her debt to HSBC surfaced online.
Currently, HSBC’s petition is still pending in the Court of Appeals. /clorenciana