Gov't vow PNB profitability.

THE GOVERNMENT said yesterday the Philippine National Bank would be out of the red in the first year of its rehabilitation.

"There is a chance that the bank will start posting positive numbers, or at least manage to break even during the first year of the rehabilitation that will start very soon," PNB chair Norberto Nazareno, concurrent head of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., said.

The bank has been a consistent money loser. Two years ago, it registered a net loss of P5.97 billion. A year before, its losses stood at P13.85 billion.

Before PNB's rehabilitation could begin, however, the government and the bank's majority owner, beer and …