Agro bank blasts opposition candidate’s pledge to condone loans

Santo Domingo.- The Administrator of the agro loan bank today told the opposition PRD party’s presidential candidate that the Law doesn’t authorize forgiving debts with the Banco Agricola (Bagricola), in response to Hipólito Mejía’s recent statements.

Paíno Abreu Colollado said “a President could look for funds where he considers pertinent, as president Leonel did Fernandez did when he paid more than RD$30.0 million to Bagricola bank to settle debts they lost in their areas of production in the Enriquillo Lake region, but not speak of forgiving, because that figure doesn’t exist in this Bank’s regulations.”

Last weekend Mejía pledged to condone the onion growers’ debt with the agro bank, but Abreu noted that the political demagoguery shouldn’t lead to formulation of non-viable promises which in the official’s view also pose a threat to the Dominican financial system. “By expressing himself in such an irresponsible manner, the candidate Mejía should keep in mind that in his term in office (2000-2004), history’s worse banking failures occurred and from which the country has yet to fully recover.”

Abreu, in a statement quoted by newspaper Hoy, also cited the scandal sparked by Mejia’s previous statements in the same topic and when Bagricola’s clients didn’t pay any attention to his similar exhortations that borrowers abstain from paying their debts. “The national producers know they have the effective support of this Government agency, whose primary target is to economically support farming development.”