Bangko Montañosa, the first rural bank in Kalinga and Apayao, celebrates 54 years of service
This March 14, 2024, Bangko Montanosa is celebrating 54 years of banking service to the communities in Cordillera and the Cagayan Valley. While not all rural banks survived the turbulence and challenges of the times, Bangko Montanosa has been resilient and has grown to what it is now today.
The corporation which displayed persistence and continuous development have its humble beginnings. Currently, the bank has five branches, excluding the corporate office.
The birth of the rural bank in then Kalinga-Apayao (1970)
During the difficult times in the 1970s – a period when banking and financial institutions were too few in Kalinga-Apayao and a period when economic activities were limited in the province - five men came together and made the bold decision to give birth to the first rural bank of Kalinga and Apayao.
In the early months of 1970, Inocencio Hidalgo was replaced by Atty. Antonio Alvarez before its inauguration in 1971, Teofilo Pilando, Antonio Orodio, Engr. Pastor Soriano, and Pablo Wangdali envisioned a bank to become the engine of the economy in Kalinga and Apayao. The five pulled their resources together to raise capital and sat down to do the paperwork required. After completing the requirements, they submitted their application to the Department of Rural Banks of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
On May 11, 1970, BSP approved the application of the group, and on December 18, 1970, the Securities and Exchange Commission ratified the articles of incorporation.
Three months later, on March 14, 1971, the Rural Bank of Tabuk was inaugurated in Barangay Bulanao.
Rural Bank of Tabuk First extension office (1974)
Five years after its inauguration, the Rural Bank of Tabuk opened its first and only extension office in Dagupan Centro at the Old Petron in Dagupan to serve the clients in the then center of commerce in March 1974.
In 1986, the office was transferred to Maslan’s building, and then to the C-ACT building in Dagupan West in 1999.
Death of 2 incorporators and change of management (2001-2002)
In 2001, two of the incorporators and pioneers of the Bank, Wangdali and Orodio passed away, the first in July and the latter in August. Due to this unfortunate event, the remaining board of directors were called to reorganize in August of the following year.
The Rural Bank of Tabuk was mainly managed by the Orodio family from its opening in 1971 until August 2002. On August 12, 2002, a special stockholder's meeting was held and reorganization followed, Christine Wangdali – the daughter of Pablo Wangdali and a Certified Public Accountant was elected as the president of the bank.
Strategies undertaken and sacrifices made by the new management (2002)
In September 2002, the new management found they were facing various challenges from problems in operations to issues of an increasing number of delinquent borrowers resulting in a high past due ratio. There was strong pressure from regulators for the bank officers and employees to work harder to bring down past due ratio to industry levels.
The new team, under the leadership of Wangdali, decided to stop lending for two years and focused solely on collecting payments for debts. The two years were described as one of the most trying times that tested the patience and perseverance of the workforce and some sacrifices were never experienced before. Wangdali, herself, along with now VP of Marketing and Promotions Mercedes Ayang-ang and VP for Operations Janet Balinsat, recounted how they hiked hours and visited far-flung areas just to get to clients and worked with them to pay their debts. On some occasions, they had to sleep inside the vehicle and brave lightless nights just to reach the borrowers.
The new group of board of directors, in order to survive, recommended trimming down employees, renovating the old building, providing a more conducive work environment to workers, and conducting a massive overhaul of staffing patterns and training of workforce. More aggressive marketing and promotion of the bank’s services and diversification of loan products were also introduced.
The first branch of Rural Bank of Tabuk and its expansion (2003 - 2018)
Rural Bank of Tabuk began its first expansion on March 14, 2003, with the conversion of Dagupan Centro extension office as a branch. Months following the conversion, the branch’s office in Dagupan West was transferred to Poblacion Centro.
For 10 years, the bank operated through its two branches in Bulanao and Dagupan Centro.
In 2013, with the bank’s recovery, increase in revenue, and accumulation of assets, the board pushed for the opening of another branch on December 2, this time in Carig Sur, Tuguegarao City.
In 2018, five years later, the bank again put up new branches. The Conner branch in Conner, Apayao was opened on November 9 and the Paracelis branch in Paracelis, Mt. Province on December 12. These were the first banks in those municipalities.
Rural Bank of Tabuk changed its name to Bangko Montañosa, Inc. (2018)
As the bank moved to other places other than Tabuk to serve more communities and bring more financial services, the board took a move to rebrand the rural bank. The idea was to serve the people of the Old Montanosa which had parts of the now Cagayan Valley, Ilocos, and mostly Cordillera. There were three names that were put forward – Bangko ti Amianan, KABalikat Bank, and Bangko Montanosa.
The name that was first selected was KABalikat which signifies K-A as Kalinga Apayao and balikat to mean a shoulder to lean on. Nevertheless, Engr. Arnulfo Pilando, the then chair of the board in 2014, strongly suggested that Bangko Montanosa was the best fit to brand the bank. Judge Clarisa Pacis Trinidad, one of the board of directors, said, “You give us one good reason why we have to change our vote and we will.” Engr. Pilando convinced the board by underscoring the history of the Old Montanosa, the identity of the bank where it was born, and the scope of expansion and communities served by the bank which are all within the Old Montanosa territory. The old Montanosa was in the Spanish-Philippine Map in 1908 which was where the old composition of Mountain Province came from before it was broken into four separate provinces in 1966.
On April 25, 2018, the Rural Bank of Tabuk officially became Bangko Montañosa, Inc. The logo of the bank shows 6 rays of the sun symbolizing the 6 provinces of the Cordillera, 2 Mountains symbolizing the Montanosa region, and the two lines below the mountain symbolizing the valleys of Cagayan and Ilocos.
Recent innovations and the movers behind (2013-2024)
The physical, financial, technological, and personnel growth and the recent services developments as well as expansions which started in 2013 can be attributed to the progressive stance of the bank and the think tanks behind the strategies, plans, implementations, and compliances.
One of the biggest developments of Bangko Montanosa happened this year. In 2024, as part of its mandate of providing better service to the people, BMI went online with the next bank project. This enables branches to facilitate transactions faster by connecting them to each other. This also means that a client or depositor of a BMI branch in Dagupan can transact business with another BMI branch in other areas.
Who are Bangko Montanosa’s 2023 board of directors?
Bangko Montanosa has seven members of the Board of Directors. These directors were selected to be part of the team based on their experiences and expertise as titans in their own specializations.
Most of the directors completed their degrees and earned their graduate studies from prestigious schools in the Philippines and abroad, and worked in national and multinational companies with some having served the government for decades.
The President
Leading BMI since 2002 is CPA, Christine Wangdali, who carried the bank from a few million to now hundreds of millions of assets and capital. She finished her degree in Business Administration Major in Accounting at the Philippine School of Business Administration. She completed her master’s degree in Entrepreneurship at the Asian Institute of Management.
Before becoming the president of BMI, Christine was an entrepreneur and managed businesses like the Petron Wangdali Gas Station, office and school supplies shops, general merchandise stores, and rice/palay trade.
She also became a Director of the Tabuk Multipurpose Cooperative for two years from 1997 to 1999.
Apart from BMI, Wangdali is the current president of the Business and Engineering School of Technology (BEST), a TESDA-Accredited training school in Tabuk City.
Chairman of the Board
For the past 7 years, Dr. Leticia Pilando has been serving as the Chairman of the BMI Board of Directors apart from representing the Mountain Produce and Food Manufacturing Corporation.
Her prowess in holding the position came from her excellent educational background: BS Agricultural Chemistry at the UP Los Baños and Masters and Doctor of Philosophy in Food Science at Oregon State University in the USA, with a career spent in big companies in the Philippines like the Dole and Nestle.
For a year, she was a CADRE-Regional Advisor for Quality Management at Nestle Center Global Headquarters in Switzerland before working as the Adviser for Quality Management at Nestle Philippines. She retired as the Senior Vice President of the company in 2009.
Independent Directors
The independent directors are those whose decisions are not affected by any factors. They are expected to provide impartial and objective judgment on corporate affairs.
Antonio Dumaliang
Antonio Dumaliang, a CPA, was elected as an independent director from 2020 to 2024. He finished his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration Major in Accounting at the University of the East and Master’s in Management at the Asian Institute of Management in 1994. He also had trainings in risk management and leadership programs in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
He worked as Plant Controller, Financial Controller, and Internal Auditor at various companies in the country and abroad for 3 decades. He retired as the Vice President of Internal Audit at Holcim Philippines, Inc. in 2009.
Currently, he is also an Independent Director of the 1st Valley Bank, Inc., NetBank, and Fintech Bank.
Regular Directors
BMI has three elected regular directors who help direct the bank’s operations and keep on top of its game. These are Certified Public Accountants Arturo Mendizabel, Virginia Puyoc, and Oniel Longey Oras.
Arturo Mendizabel
Mendizabel has a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce Major in Accounting at Ateneo De Zamboanga and Master’s in Business Administration at Ateneo De Manila. He practiced his field of specialization in auditing, accounting and finance.
He worked as Comptroller and VP Comptroller at Bacnotan Consolidated and Atlas Cement. He was also employed as SVP Comptroller at Union Galva Steel Corp until his retirement in 2011.
His career in banking includes being an Independent Director of First Valley Bank, Inc. from 2011 – 2015 and a member of the Board of Advisors in 2015; and an Independent Director of Sugbuanon Rural Bank, Inc. from 2016 to 2017. He was also elected as an independent of the bank from 2014 to 2022.
Virginia Puyoc
Puyoc has a degree in Business Management Major in Accounting and a master’s in Public Administration at St. Paul University. Before her appointment as a regular director of BMI in 2021, she served for 25 years as the Provincial Accountant of the Province of Kalinga.
Though she retired from government service, she was appointed as the PLGU’s financial consultant. Likewise, her expertise also extends to various organizations like the Lin-awa Rehabilitation and Development Center where she’s the current Chair of the Board of Trustees; Girl Scout of the Philippines (Kalinga-Apayao Chapter), Vice President for Fund Management; and Provincial Engineering Office Multipurpose Cooperative where she was elected as the treasurer.
Oniel Longey Oras
As for Oras who holds a degree in Accountancy and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Melbourne, he earned certifications in courses like financial modelling and corporate business strategy.
His notable skills in his field brought him to work in companies not just in the Philippines but also in Singapore and Australia over the past years.
Aside from being elected as a regular director of BMI, Oras is the current Senior Finance Manager of Green Peak Energy, a leading solar Power Purchase Agreement provider in Australia and New Zealand.
With all of these scholastic and work-experience credentials of its Board of Directors partnered with the collaborative efforts and hard work of the BMI employees, there is no doubt why Bangko Montañosa, Inc. continues to live to its vision to be ‘the most admired, progressive, and socially responsible bank delivering superior quality services towards better lives’ in the communities and areas it serves.
BMI, in the next years, is planning to put more branches in underserved municipalities within the old Montañosa and parts of Cagayan Valley and Isabela. As it grows, it keeps in mind the main aim which is to bring better socio-economic conditions to communities by serving as a channel of financial services and partners of entrepreneurs.
Credits to: gurupress-cordillera.com
Leonora Lo-oy
