E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Queerer still
Sunday, 05 09, 2006
Philcomsat Holdings Corp. (PHC) should be holding its much-awaited annual stockholders’ meeting (ASM) today. But somebody told me that at the meeting of a member of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) last Friday at the Manila Pen with several PHC directors, it was agreed that May 9 being the last day of the corporate term of PHC, the ASM will no longer be held, to pave the way for the death of PHC. That way, as they thought wrongly, the anomalies at PHC will be interred and brought beyond the reach of anyone, much less make those who ran away with P850 million in corporate funds be held responsible.
They are mistaken. Proposed Resolution 455 of Sen. Miriam Santiago, which details the questionable deals and expenses incurred by PHC, will be heard within the week at the Senate, and those responsible had better prepare. And I give the same advice to that member of the PCGG who has been acting queerly lately, supporting those who plundered PHC, to the extent even of using in vain the name of a powerful official at the Palace.
Resolution 455 cites this detail--Professional fees paid by PHC: In 2003, P1.9 million; in 2004, P11.5 million. Or an increase of 505 percent! Queer? You bet. But what is queerer is, the fees went to somebody who is a disgrace to his profession on account of his involvement in many conflict-of-interest situations, aside from his facing a multi-million estafa case.
The committee of Sen. Dick Gordon surely will have a grand time prying into the details of this grand expense at the PHC.
Another detail that Santiago wants to scrutinize is the jump by 4,697 percent of the entertainment expenses incurred by PHC executives between 2003 and 2004. The figures: P133,500 for 2003, then P6.4 million in 2004. For a company whose income is sourced solely from its money market placements, that is a queer expense in any language. Does that include the expenses for the nocturnal visits to Telecoms Plaza of somebody from the PCGG? I tell you, there will be many queer things which will be exposed when Gordon convenes his committee this week.
The Senate should not overlook the siphoning of P73 million of PHC funds to a subsidiary called Telecommunications Center Inc. (TCI). It will be interesting to know who are at the helm of TCI. Over 18 months, advances were made to it by PHC, and even at the time of death of PHC, not a centavo of these advances has been accounted for. Somebody claims the advances were intended to underwrite sanitizing operations for the image of you-know-who. Queer.
Another daily reported that the PHC Executive Committee released P265 million and granted a P125- million loan to a relative of an Executive Committee member, and that there have been no payments given by that relative, subjecting PHC to an estimated interest income loss of P11.25 million in 2004 alone. What makes this queer of a transaction is that the beneficiary of this generosity is a relative of you-know-who. Only in this government!
Those who have plundered PHC will not mourn its death. After all, they had nothing to lose, and everything to plunder. Only the real owners of PHC, meaning, the group of Victor Africa, which includes the Ilusorio and Ponce Enrile families, and the government are the victims of the inefficient and grossly abusive monitors of the PCGG, the incoherent and inconsonant Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the plunderers who boast of ties (by blood and profession, I was told) to you-know-who. Queer, but true.
Santiago was engaged in wishful thinking when she said in Resolution 455 that the Senate hearing will hopefully “conserve or salvage any remaining value of the government’s equity position” in PHC. There is nothing to conserve or to salvage, madame senator.
But, at least, we can still go after the plunderers. So, let us get on with the hearings at the Senate.
Aside from the inquiry in aid of legislation at the Senate, criminal proceedings should also be in order, against those who made PHC their cash cow. Hopefully, nothing like the previous dismissal of a criminal complaint for fraud against the same executives, without any hearing and based on evidence not even presented, will ever happen again. And by all means, the related cases filed before the Ombudsman against the plunderers must now move.
Given the sorry fate of PHC, it is about time that Congress defines what the PCGG must do, and what its representatives cannot do, much less receive in whatever denomination, form or manner, in government-acquired corporations.
About time also that the SEC is given the stern marching order to hold itself above suspicion from any favoritism in resolving multi-million controversies, most especially where government interest is involved.
About time, finally, that the PCGG designates representatives who will work their butts off to make the corporations profitable, and who will really look into the government’s interest foremost, and not merely claim to do so.
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