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By Francis Earl A.Cueto, Reporter
THE Presidential Commission on
Good Government on Wednesday dismissed as “moot and academic”
the decision of the Supreme Court ordering the Sandiganbayan to
settle the ownership of some 33 million shares in San Miguel Corp.
(SMC) acquired through the coconut-levy fund.
PCGG Commissioner Narciso Nario,
a Sandiganbayan justice, said no deal was ever made because the
compromise in question had been withdrawn.
“There is nothing there. The
settlement or the compromise with the Government Service Insurance
System, PCGG and the United Coconut Planters Bank was already
withdrawn,” Nario said.
In a decision written by
Associate Justice Cancio Garcia, the Court’s First Division said
the Sandiganbayan was right in disapproving the proposed stock
purchase agreement between the GSIS and the PCGG.
The PCGG wants the P1.45-billion
stock purchase deal done by breaking the block of shares into
smaller units to be sold to GSIS members.
Business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco
Jr., the Philippine Coconut Producers’ Federation Inc., the late
Maria Clara Lobregat and the SMC corporate secretary have opposed
the agreement.
Nario noted that the compromise
deal was withdrawn in 1994.
“The Court nevertheless decided
on it, even if the agreement had been withdrawn. All these issues
and events occurred in 1994. So this is already moot and academic.
The Court made a decision on it and there was nothing. The basis of
the decision has nothing because the agreement was never implemented
and the supposed agreement was withdrawn,” he said.
Nario added the Supreme Court
decision does not affect the coconut-levy cases.
Cojuangco is claiming ownership
of 54 million shares in UCPB and 26,448 in San Miguel. The Cocofed,
on the other hand, filed an opposition on behalf of coconut farmers
alleging that they are the ultimate beneficial owners of the SMC
shares.
Court records showed that on
March 26, 1986, the Coconut Industry Investment Fund Holding
Companies (CIIF) sold 33,133,266 shares of San Miguel stock to
Andres Soriano III of the SMC Group for P3.31 billion.
On April 1, 1986, Soriano paid
the initial P500 million to the UCPB, the administrator of the CIIF.
Seven days later, the PCGG, then led by the former Senate president
Jovito Salonga, sequestered the shares as part of ill-gotten wealth
amassed by the Marcoses and their associates.
Because of the sequestration, the
SMC Group refused to pay the balance for the shares. The UCPB Group
retaliated by rescinding the sale.
Three years later, the SMC and
UCPB groups settled their differences and informed the Sandiganbayan
of a compromise proposal where the they would pay PCGG an
“arbitration fee” in the form of 5,500,000 SMC shares.
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