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BY Jomar Canlas Reporter
Taipan Lucio Tan scored another
victory, this time at the Supreme Court after it ruled against a
petition by the Land Bank of the Philippines.
LandBank argued that Tan’s two
flagship corporations, Asia Brewery Inc. and Fortune Tobacco Corp.,
should buy back its Philippine Airlines (PAL) shares at P5 for every
share.
Earlier, Tan scored a victory at
the High Tribunal when it ruled that the Presidential Commission on
Good Government (PCGG) could not withhold documents about the
sequestration of Allied Bank that the taipan requested from
Sandiganbayan.
In the latest case, the Supreme
Court released Tan’s companies from their obligation to buy back
the PAL shares of LandBank and other government financial
institutions.
It argued the case became final
after LandBank failed to file a petition for review with the Court
of Appeals within the given 15-day period.
In dismissing the appeal of
LandBank, the Supreme Court affirmed the appellate court’s
resolution dated July 31, 2006, denying the bank’s motion for
extension of time so it can file a petition for review of a Makati
regional trial court judgment to annul the case, and the September
11, 2006 resolution, which denied the bank’s motion for
reconsideration.
“Procedural rules setting the
period for perfecting an appeal or filing an appellate petition are
generally inviolable,” High Tribunal ruled.
Based on the stockholders’
agreement, LandBank, along with Philippine National Bank (PNB),
Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Armed Forces of the
Philippines Retirement and Separation Benefits System (AFP-RSBS) and
Government Service Insurance System agreed to a “put-option”
when they acquired PAL shares from Ascot Holdings and Equities Inc.
and companies named as respondents in the case. Those firms were
obligated to buy back the same PAL shares at P5 for every share six
years after the stockholders’ agreement became effective.
The stockholders’ agreement
says Asia Brewery and Fortune Tobacco were guarantors. As such,
LandBank argued they were obligated to buy back the PAL shares if
Ascot and other firms were unable to do so.
According to the records, it was
shown that around March 1992 after PAL was privatized, LandBank
bought from the national government some 75 million PAL shares at
P14.39 for every share or for a total more than P1.08 billion.
LandBank, along with the GSIS and
the national government, own 33 percent of PAL’s stock, while the
respondents and other stockholders of PR Holdings owned the other 67
percent.
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