E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Shooting the pioneer down
Sunday, 09 05, 2004
At a time when the telecommunications industry is soaring high, wide and handsome like no other, and definitely showering megabucks on the new players, Philippine Communications Satellite Corp. (Philcomsat), the pioneer in Philippine telecommunications, is being shot down to the ground owing to a crucial battle for legitimacy between two groups of stockholders.
To make matters worse, it looks like the Government is deliberately standing by while at the same time egging the warring groups, as if telling itself: “Let them shoot it out; we’ll just sort them out after the carnage.”
The Government presently owns 4,727 shares representing 34.9 percent of Philippine Overseas Telecommunications Corp. (POTC), the parent company of Philcomsat; and 28 percent of Philcomsat Holdings Corp. (PHC), through the 80-percent ownership of Philcomsat in this subsidiary. Nice enough percentages, one might say. But when one considers that the Government earned substantial cash dividends - about P800 million - from 1986 to 1997, but none at all from 1998 to date, one gets a feeling that Philcomsat has gone spinning out of control and is headed for a spectacular crash.
In 1998, when the intra-corporate controversy in Philcomsat was aborning, the value of Government shares was estimated at P1.4 billion, at a book value of P296,000 for each of its 4,727 shares. Five years later, the adjusted book value per share is reportedly closer to P37,000, or a measly P175 million for the Government. In 1991, Philcomsat hauled revenues of about P954 million. In 2003, it pulled in a niggardly P33 million.
What happened? Where did all the money go?
Ask the self-aggrandizing government representatives to this corporation. Or the inefficient and grossly abusive monitors of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG). Or the incoherent, inconsonant Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In a bizarre development, it is even reported that one group of stockholders boasts of ties (by blood, I was told) to somebody very powerful in Government. It figures.
As to the PCGG’s share of culpability in the unerring plummet of Philcomsat, it would be an act of extreme charity to say that the PCGG has closed its eyes. It has failed - some say on purpose - to scrutinize several Philcomsat transactions that even the marginally literate taxpayer will instantly recognize as plunder. Consider: A cash outlay of P390 million for the purchase of twelve hectares of undeveloped land, preliminary to a merger with a realty company. Or an investment of P367 million in a company which doesn’t know shit about the difference between telekinesis and telecoms, and which has since defaulted from its financial obligations. Pray tell, was the PCGG ever curious to ask why a telecommunications company should venture into real estate? No way - ever. What efforts are being exerted by the PCGG to recover the money that Philcomsat put away? Might it not be because those who pocketed the money are untouchable, owing to relatives and connections to that rarefied place that is situated “you-know-where”? Yes, untouchable, as in that Information for violation of the Corporation Code which was dismissed for no reason at all, and where the perpetrators of the fraud in fact proceeded merrily to plunder some more another day.
As my Apo Castor Raval would say in his unaffected and unadulterated Ilokano: Ginatasan da la ngaruden ti nuang, awan pay biang da no matay wenno saan!
As to the SEC’s share in the rapidly worsening debacle of Philcomsat, thankfully the Court of Appeals recently issued a temporary restraining order, prohibiting the enforcement of a SEC Order that would have allowed one group of stockholders to convene and elect a board of directors. (The prize for either group is a neat P1.479 billion in assets of the corporation.) This court action comes as a welcome respite to the faulty intervention of the SEC in an otherwise uncomplicated intra-corporate controversy. Who owns the shares? How much is Government entitled to? The common answer to these is as simple as it is basic: Go to the Stock and Transfer Book. The SEC, however, cannot seem to make up its mind, obviously caught in a dilemma – whether to read the legitimate Stock and Transfer Book as is, or interpret the figures in that book to favor one group over the other.
Again, my Apo Castor would say: Ania ketdi nga kina-salawasaw dan aya!
So, what to do then?
A legislative investigation into the inefficiency of the PCGG, the incoherence of the SEC, and the criminal loss of revenues in Philcomsat is in order. Remedial legislation should follow.
It has been 18 years since the PCGG was created, and the hope that we placed on it as a dogged, untouchable graft-buster has long since vanished. Whatever flame it had is now reduced to an empty smoldering. No; make that a bucket of ashes.
It is about time that Congress define what the PCGG must do, and what its representatives in government-acquired corporations (like Philcomsat) cannot do, much less receive in whatever denomination, form or manner.
About time also that the SEC is given the stern marching order to hold itself above suspicion from any favoritism in resolving multi-centimillion controversies, most especially where Government is involved.
About time, finally, that the PCGG designate representatives who will work their butts out to make the corporations profitable, and who will really look into the Government’s interests foremost, and not merely claim to do so.
Aside from the inquiry in aid of legislation by Congress, criminal proceedings should also be in order, against those who have made Philcomsat their cash cow. Hopefully, nothing like the previous dismissal of a criminal complaint for fraud against certain Philcomsat executives, without any hearing and based on evidence not even presented, will ever happen again. And by all means, the related case filed before the Ombudsman against the plunderers of Philcomsat must now move.
For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
As to the SEC’s share in the rapidly worsening debacle of Philcomsat, thankfully the Court of Appeals recently issued a temporary restraining order, prohibiting the enforcement of a SEC Order that would have allowed one group of stockholders to convene and elect a board of directors. (The prize for either group is a neat P1.479 billion in assets of the corporation.) This court action comes as a welcome respite to the faulty intervention of the SEC in an otherwise uncomplicated intra-corporate controversy. Who owns the shares? How much is Government entitled to? The common answer to these is as simple as it is basic: Go to the Stock and Transfer Book. The SEC, however, cannot seem to make up its mind, obviously caught in a dilemma – whether to read the legitimate Stock and Transfer Book as is, or interpret the figures in that book to favor one group over the other.
Again, my Apo Castor would say: Ania ketdi nga kina-salawasaw dan aya!
So, what to do then?
A legislative investigation into the inefficiency of the PCGG, the incoherence of the SEC, and the criminal loss of revenues in Philcomsat is in order. Remedial legislation should follow.
It has been 18 years since the PCGG was created, and the hope that we placed on it as a dogged, untouchable graft-buster has long since vanished. Whatever flame it had is now reduced to an empty smoldering. No; make that a bucket of ashes.
It is about time that Congress define what the PCGG must do, and what its representatives in government-acquired corporations (like Philcomsat) cannot do, much less receive in whatever denomination, form or manner.
About time also that the SEC is given the stern marching order to hold itself above suspicion from any favoritism in resolving multi-centimillion controversies, most especially where Government is involved.
About time, finally, that the PCGG designate representatives who will work their butts out to make the corporations profitable, and who will really look into the Government’s interests foremost, and not merely claim to do so.
Aside from the inquiry in aid of legislation by Congress, criminal proceedings should also be in order, against those who have made Philcomsat their cash cow. Hopefully, nothing like the previous dismissal of a criminal complaint for fraud against certain Philcomsat executives, without any hearing and based on evidence not even presented, will ever happen again. And by all means, the related case filed before the Ombudsman against the plunderers of Philcomsat must now move.
For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
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