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After last week’s tumultuous public bickering between the Manila
Eelctric Co. (Meralco) management and Government Service Insurance
System (GSIS) chief Winston Garcia, the Aboitizes denied having
played a part in the government’s attempt to wrest control of the
country’s largest power distributor from the Lopezes.
Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), the holding
company of all the businesses of the Cebu-based family, told the
Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday that it was not part of the
“alleged Aboitiz planned takeover of control over Meralco.”
“The Aboitiz Group of companies has not
considered any takeover arrangement of Meralco, whether by itself or
with other entities,” Jasmine Oporto, Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC)
corporate secretary, wrote to the stock exchange.
AEV is the parent firm of APC, which in turn
owns a significant portion of Visayan Electric Co. Inc. (VECO). The
power distributor is also partly owned by Hijos de F. Escano and
Vivant Corp., the holding company of the Garcia family.
“The Garcia Family of VECO is a different
family from that of former Gov. Pablo Garcia, Mr. Winston Garcia,
incumbent Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and Rep. Pablo John Garcia of Cebu.
Messrs. Dennis Garcia, Ramontito Garcia, Gil Garcia II, Charles
Sylvestre Garcia and Antonio Garcia de Escano, who are members of
the Board of VECO, belong to the Hijos de F. Escano family,”
Oporto said.
The APC corporate secretary added that VECO is
not represented by Garcia & Garcia Law Officed located at 2091
Andres Abellana Street, Guadalupe, Cebu City “as certain news
articles insinuate.” Garcia and Garcia are the law offices of Gov.
Pablo Garcia and sons of the GSIS president and general manager.
Jon Ramon Abotiz, AEV president and chief
executive, also denied that the family is interested in buying
Meralco or taking over its management.
“We absolutely have no interest in Meralco,
never had any interest in Meralco and we have a very close
relationship with the Lopez family,” he said two weeks ago.
While the GSIS chief is already in the
“process of interviewing people” that will form a management
team with the expectation that the state pension fund will soon take
over the Lopez-owned utility, Garcia told reporters last week that
he was not considering anyone from existing power distributors to
handle the Meralco management.
Last week, Meralco won the first round of the
battle by securing a 60-day temporary restraining order from the
Court of Appeals against the Securities and Exchange Commission and
the GSIS.
-- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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