|
THOSE of us who in the course
of our work have to try and comprehend the workings of
government-owned or -controlled corporations can be forgiven if
sometimes we come to the conclusion that embarking on a search for
the Holy Grail would be a far easier quest.
And there is no better case in
point than the convoluted legal tangle—with two sets of boards
each with their own allegedly legitimate claims to be the ascendant
party, and with dominant personalities and influential backers from
both sides thrown into the heady brew—that has been playing out
for several years at Philcomsat Holdings Corporation (PHC).
To rewind the PHC saga (for some
points pertinent to the company appear to have been lost in the
legal brouhaha), Philcomsat was once the leading satellite
communications entity in the Philippines. But that was in the time
of the conjugal dictatorship, and soon after the fall of the Marcos
regime, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG)-instigated
corporate free-for-all (circa 1986) saw the majority chunk of PHC
shares sequestered on the basis that they were from the proceeds of
ill-gotten wealth.
Since then the Sandiganbayan has
ruled that 35 percent of the sequestered stake belonged to the state
and the balance 5 percent to Potenciano Ilusorio who happened to be
one of the shareholders from whom the stock had been originally
sequestered.
With some of the other
shareholders still contesting the rights to their shares, PHC has
been embroiled for over a decade in legal wonderland—with the
respective directors meeting more often in the courtroom than the
boardroom.
So when we bumped into one of the
leading players on the government side of the company, former PHC
chairman but now its vice president Enrique Locsin, at a cocktail
reception, we asked him the latest on the Philcomsat front.
With his eyes rolling heavenwards
as if to indicate that only divine intervention would bring about a
resolution, Locsin pointed out that he now almost feels like a
lawyer. “I spend so much of time with lawyers and in weighty
discussions on legal matters that I’m almost thinking about taking
up law since I seem to have unwittingly gathered so much legal
knowledge,” he says somewhat in jest, though the comment is
riddled in irony.
But on a more serious note he
added: “What really baffles me is the amount of stuff that gets
out into the public domain about Philcomsat, and most of which is
completely fabricated.
“Just recently there was a
media story that a check for P1 million allegedly made out to the
PCGG was facilitated by me with my initials appearing on the check
stub. But frankly, I had no hand in any such transaction and have no
idea whatsoever how it came about. So it’s really incredible how
these baseless allegations come up.”
He added: “But, of course, I
have my suspicions how my name came to be involved in that issue and
I am investigating the matter and it may well be the subject of
future legal action.”
Locsin makes the defiant stand
that he is a fighter. “If anyone makes false accusations against
me then I will definitely go to the courts and fight them,” he
said. “I will never allow my integrity and reputation, and that of
my family, to be destroyed.”
Meanwhile, the PHC saga makes its
laborious way through the corridors of jurisprudence. And we hazard
a guess that some among the battery of lawyers trying to negotiate
the legal maze must sometimes think that a search for the Holy Grail
might really be much easier. Though, to be sure, not that lucrative!
E-mail: bizzfizz_98@yahoo.com
|
