President Rodrigo Duterte speaks at the 23rd anniversary celebration of Tesda in Taguig on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said he would go after Benpres Holdings Corp., now known as Lopez Holdings Corp., and six other companies that have debts with state-run Development Bank of the Philippines.
鈥淚鈥檒l go after itong mga elite,鈥澛燚uterte said in a speech during the 23rd anniversary celebration of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) in Taguig City.
鈥淎nd 鈥� I will not name the person 鈥� but iyong mga company nila noon, Benpres and about six other companies, may utang sila sa DBP. At ang utang nila umabot ng鈥� to finance this鈥� pera ng tao, gagamitin nila to finance their business pero kanila 鈥檡ung kita.鈥�
鈥淎nd yet, they were not able to pay and it was condoned by government,鈥� he added. 鈥淜aya noong binabasa ko 鈥檡ung鈥� sabi ko, 鈥業 will go after the elite in this country because they are the ones really who鈥檚 benefiting from all of these things鈥�.鈥�
The President did not name the other six companies.
According to its website, the Lopez Holding Corp. 鈥渨as incorporated in 1993 by the Lopez family of the Philippines to serve as the holding company for investments in major development sectors such as聽broadcasting聽and聽cable;聽telecommunications; power generation聽聽and聽distribution; and banking.鈥�
鈥淚t added to its portfolio investments in other basic service sectors but has since sold its direct interest in banking, toll roads, information technology, property development, cable and health care delivery,鈥� says the company website.
The Lopezes also own media giant聽ABS-CBN Corp., which Duterte has slammed for allegedly being biased against him.
Duterte has launched attacks against ABS-CBN, saying he paid the network for airtime during the presidential election campaign, using money he received from donors when his ratings went up. But he said his political advertisement never came out on the network. /补迟尘听