The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) successfully achieved the Proficiency Status of the Performance Governance System (PGS) after the public revalida presentation by DBP chairman Jose A. Nunez, Jr. during the Public Governance Forum held on May 4, 2015 at the Philippine International Convention Center. DBP also received its second Silver Governance Trailblazer Award, coming on the heels of the first Silver Governance Trailblazer Award it received on October 21, 2014 when it attained the Compliance Status.
The PGS program consists of four stages: Initiation, Compliance, Proficiency and Institutionalization. Through the PGS, the organization’s vision is translated into specific and quantifiable strategies and time-bound commitments with the objective of realizing breakthrough results. For DBP, successfully hurdling the Proficiency Status, less than six months after attaining the Compliance Status, and winning two successive Silver Governance Trailblazer Awards evidence its commitment and resoluteness in implementing its transformation program. With its Proficiency Status conferral, DBP is among the organizations considered to be showcased as “Islands of Good Governance” for APEC 2015.
As DBP chairman Nunez declared during his presentation: “We are proud to say that we have now re-focused our bank back to its core business of financing and lending to our core sectors; in the process, we have re-directed our bank back to its developmental mandates. We are proud to report that DBP performs as well as, and in some measures, better than private commercial banks, in spite of the more difficult financial hurdles we face in our development projects.”
DBP’s early gains in realizing its breakthrough goals — of a ten-fold increase in loans to its core mandate sectors of local government units (LGUs), water districts and electric cooperatives from P6.9-billion in 2013 to P60-billion in the 3 year-period starting from 2014 thru 2016 — were indeed extraordinary as the bank reached the P25.8-billion mark, surpassing the target of P18-billion on the first year, 2014. DBP focused on these sectors in support of the Philippine Development Plan and because it is these sectors that have the most immediate and biggest impact to our countrymen’s well-being: the social infrastructure put up by LGUs such as public markets, transport terminals, hospitals, schools, roads and sports and leisure facilities and the most basic need for water and electricity distributed by water districts and electric cooperatives.
As good governance results in good business performance, the bank registered breakthrough results in other areas of its financial performance: P4.6-billion profits in 2014, growth in assets to near the half-trillion mark making it the 6th biggest bank, and being recognized as among the Top 3 Government Securities Dealer bank. DBP president and chief executive officer Gil A. Buenaventura further points out: “These financial achievements have further extended through 2015 as the bank posted YTD net profits of P1.4-billion as of April 2015, making it on track to achieving its annual profit targets.”
At the same time, DBP achieved its other non-financial targets: development loans comprise over 80% of the bank’s portfolio, full compliance to the Governance Commission on Government-owned or Controlled Corporations (GCG) in selected major final outputs (MFOs) of loans to priority areas, low-cost deposits and countryside deposits, net income, and operational efficiency and overall improvements in service levels and access to credit by its customers.
The PGS is administered by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia, a non-government organization with its main advocacy for good governance practices. The Public Governance Forum is organized twice a year to give organizations the opportunity to report publicly on the progress they have made through governance reform. In the May 4, 2014 Public Governance Forum, 12 organizations presented and five Silver Trailblazer Awards were conferred including the one awarded to DBP.