This is in reference to the article “Restructuring program: “DBP slashes staff in bid to be gov’t’s main infra bank” (Business, 8/15/22). Please allow us to clarify some points raised in the news item.
The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) submitted to the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) in 2017 and on Dec. 15, 2020, a request for reorganization in line with the Bank’s efforts to broaden and enhance our developmental loan programs initiatives for our key customers and client segments while allowing the institution to successfully pivot toward digitalization. The proposed reorganization plan never involved any reduction in the total number of positions in consonance with the guidance of both the GCG and the Department of Finance for “cost-neutrality.”
We wish to emphasize GCG’s order is not yet final and executory. We have already communicated our position to GCG on July 25, 2022, reiterating our stand that the reorganization should not necessitate a decrease in positions and compromise the Bank’s ability to efficiently fulfill its mandate as an infrastructure and development bank. We are still awaiting GCG’s action on our latest communication.
DBP believes our proposed reorganization plan provides the Bank with ample flexibility to generate its own plantilla items and the requisite organizational agility to allocate manpower resources to critical business units depending on the demands of the existing socioeconomic milieu and as well as the thrusts and priorities of the national government. DBP views this flexibility as crucial in our efforts to address emerging operational challenges, while enabling the Bank to achieve its targets, and effectively exercise its mandate as a government financial institution.
Notwithstanding this concern, the DBP board of directors, along with its senior management and personnel remain committed to providing the needed credit assistance that advances and sustains infrastructure development, responsible entrepreneurship, efficient social services, protection of the environment and hastens the country’s economic recovery.
ZANDRO CARLOS P. SISON
First Vice President
Development Bank of the Philippines