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By Likha Cuevas-Miel, Reporter
The plot seems to get uglier, if the state
pension fund is to be believed.
On Monday, eve of a stockholders’ meeting of
the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the Government Service Insurance
System (GSIS) revealed an alleged plan of the Lopez-owned utility to
heckle and discredit its general manager and president, Winston
Garcia.
During a briefing, lawyer Estrella Elamparo,
also GSIS chief legal counsel, told reporters that a group of
Meralco employees, together with some members of a non-Meralco-based
labor union, came forward and informed the pension fund’s public
affairs office that there was a “rehearsed drama” and staged
heckling of Garcia in today’s stockholders’ meeting.
“The plan was hatched by certain officers,
certain persons in the management of Meralco, to [restrain] the
rights of shareholders, especially GSIS, to be heard” in the
meeting, Elamparo said.
Among those named responsible for the alleged
script were Leonisa de la Llana, head of Meralco’s human resources
and corporate services; Ruben Sapitula, vice president for human
resources; and Ricky Concepcion, senior manager.
Part of the script, the GSIS lawyer said, was
for the Meralco employees attending the meeting to jeer and boo
Garcia or any GSIS representative whenever they would try to speak
during the stockholders’ meeting.
“We were informed that as early as today
[Monday], the employees have been told that they should fill up the
venue, Meralco Theater, by as early as 6 to 6:30 a.m. tomorrow
[Tuesday]. The beginning of the registration is at 7:30 a.m. So
apparently they have told the employees to be there as early as 6
a.m. in order to get the best seats and so as not to give enough
seats for the other shareholders who would want to attend,”
Elamparo said.
Besides heckling, there was also another alleged
plan to deploy the Meralco employees to pose as disgruntled
employees or members who would air their grievances against GSIS
during the meeting. “They would try to deflect the issue on what
is to happen tomorrow by talking about alleged grievances against
GSIS,” the GSIS spokesman said.
Elamparo added that these employees would be
allowed to bring placards and, as part of their supposed drama, the
hecklers will be picked up by Meralco guards. “But instead of
taking them to the appropriate authorities, they will be brought to
the Meralco Lighthouse and treated to a sumptuous lunch as a
‘talent fee’ for their actions,” she said.
‘Talent fee’
Elamparo added that members of the media will be
prohibited from doing live coverage of the Meralco meeting. “I
think all of us are interested in what is to happen tomorrow. We are
afraid that our voices will be muffled,” she said.
The legality of the alleged actions of Meralco
management, according to Elamparo, “will have to be studied” as
GSIS’ rights as a shareholder have been “violated from the very
beginning,” when the pension fund asked for pertinent information
such as a validated list of proxies.
She said the Meralco employees were made to sign
proxy forms and claimed that 3,000 of the 4,000 of the proxies
validated came from the ranks of Meralco employees. Elamparo noted
that the proxy forms were uniform, were color-coded and the wordings
were the same. “Obviously they were solicited,” she said.
Proxy forms are documents that state that a
shareholder is authorizing somebody else to vote or exercise his
right on his behalf during a stockholders’ meeting.
In a text message to The Manila Times, Jesus
Francisco, Meralco president, said he has “no knowledge of any
such plan.”
“I hope there will be no disturbances. The
situation is charged enough. Personally, I am not aware of any such
plot,” he added.
A Meralco employee, who refused to be named,
told The Times that their bosses “encouraged but not forced”
shareholder-employees to come to the meeting at 6 a.m. The employee
said there were no instructions to heckle Garcia.
There also was also no “free day” for the
Meralco employees, as GSIS had claimed, so that they can attend the
meeting, the source said. If the meeting finishes early, he added,
the employees would still have to go back to their duties.
TRO on Meralco not true
Meanwhile, Elamparo said the GSIS did not intend
to file a temporary restraining order to stop the stockholders’
meeting today as reported earlier because it wants to participate in
it. Representatives from the state pension fund confirmed that
Garcia would attend the meeting but that he would be “entering a
lion’s den” if he did.
She, however, admitted that the state fund was
preparing a criminal and civil case against the country’s largest
power distributor two weeks ago but this was held in abeyance
“hoping that [Meralco] management will somehow listen and would
somehow start giving us information.”
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