Despite all the attempts to obfuscate the real point of that controversial PSE Report, it is clear from reading the entire thing that they did uncover something. Maybe it didn't tell the whole story and maybe it covered up for some people, but from what the report detailed, serious investigators have more than enough to begin with.
The paper and cyber trail told a story of insider trading and price manipulation. While it is within the rights of those accused to try and explain their actions away when the case hits the courts, the PSE Report did a good job of uncovering, of tracing and of piecing things together to give us the unsavory story.
I chanced upon Rep. Joey Salceda, a LAMP congressman from Albay and one of the hottest and most colorful stock market traders in his day. I asked him what he thought of the PSE Report. He gave me one of his trademark all-knowing smiles and muttered something to the effect that he thought "it was an insider's view of insider trading."
It takes one to know one? Perhaps. It is an open secret that the local market often thrives on insider trading. A report of insider trading will get a yawn from the veterans on the floor but the extent and complexity of the scheme on BW is shocking even to the more jaded. That was what the PSE report uncovered.
The crudeness of the attempts to obfuscate the issue through PR techniques only made things worse. One assertion heard often enough is that the report omitted the names of many of the other heavy traders of BW shares. A careful reading of the report will reveal that they did look into the activities of a wider sampling of brokers but zeroed in on a few that indicated links with the caper of the Dante Tan group.
In other words, PSE president Jose Luis Yulo is right in saying that not all profitable trades on BW shares per se are bad. But only those that seem to be part of the pattern of trades that served to manipulate the price. In the same way, the fact that Dante Tan himself lost money in the end, does not absolve him of responsibility from previous events the report traced to him and his friends. He merely lost control as the stock price went through the roof.
In any case, I noticed that even when some brokers denounced the report as one-sided, they failed to refute the more substantive parts of the report pertaining to their roles in the alleged Dante Tan scheme. They prefer to obfuscate by saying other traders profited from BW, which is beside the point.
I also think Sen. Raul Roco did the right thing in making the report public. One can only imagine how the "preliminary" report could have been changed if kept confidential for a period of time. I also have one suggestion for Sen. Roco. Why not invite Rep. Joey Salceda, also a Bicolano, to sit in the investigation, if not as a member of a bicameral committee, as an adviser to the Roco committee looking into the case. If there is one solon who can smoke out the truth, it has got to be Joey.
And if the PSE Report covered up for the former and current chairmen of the PSE, that too will be uncovered the same way... through the paper and cyber trail. An honest follow up investigation will see to that.
I chanced upon Congressman Joey at the Jardine Fleming conference for fund managers the other day at the Makati Shangri-La. While he gave me an honest assessment of the administration thus far, he also thinks the market has been in similar straits before and still did a bull run.
Joey thinks the market is as down as it could get and the creep up has began, even if it may seem unnoticeable to most. Give it five to six months, he said. If I were you, he added, I would start picking some of the sure-fire issues. He named ABS-CBN as his all time favorite, and not just because it was the issue being discussed while we were having a chat. He had always been a loyalist for the issue.
He also added another reason why he thinks the market would soon bounce back. Look at interest rates, he pointed out, it's been stable at low levels this long.
That money has to go somewhere and he thinks the good issues in the local market are logical for those managing those funds.
As for the Erap factor, Joey thinks Erap is a changed man, or at least, trying very hard to change. He is spending more time with Pardo and Buenaventura and that should be good, Joey points out, because that means less time with his barkada. Joey was one of those who arranged that Tagaytay meeting between Erap and the fund managers.
I am tempted to take Joey's word for it and head for the phone with buy orders for my broker. Except for just one thing. He did say that the bounce back would probably happen after one more really bad piece of news. You mean, I asked, BW isn't bad enough? Nope, he said. Is it possible that Joey had been talking with my astrologer friend? I shudder to think what that might be.
Maybe the fact that Malacañang appoints the president of Petron and its foreign partners are also government bureaucrats make it less able to understand the demands of open market competition. On the other hand, I was with Petron when it was 100 percent owned by our government and we somehow managed to more than adequately respond to competition when the environment called for it.
What made me wonder about Petron today had to do with a big Valentine Concert they sponsored to launch a reformulated premium gasoline. Not only are motorists still generally ignorant of the supposed new product a week after the launch, they may have also alienated at least one important customer in the process.
Freddie Puno, president of Napocor, is not the type who will complain about it. But would you believe, Petron sent him exactly one ticket to the Valentine Concert? Napocor just happens to be the largest customer of Petron. More important, however, what idiot would send one ticket to a Valentine Concert? Maybe Petron's marketing executives have not experienced love, and for their information, that usually involves two people.
Freddie gave the lone ticket to his secretary. Too bad. Freddie is the type who would have loved to bring his wife to something like that. I understand, single tickets were also sent to other VIPs. Wait a minute, I think I figured it out. The only experience those Petron guys ever had with falling in love, is with themselves.
Ernie Espiritu sent this one for today.
The psychiatrist was holding a group consultation with three young mothers and their small children.
"You all have obsessions," he told them.
To the first one, he said, "Your obsession is eating. Why you've even named your daughter Candy."
The second, he said, was obsessed by money. "Again, it manifests itself in your child's name, Penny."
At this point, the third mother arose and, taking her little boy by the hand, whispered, "Let's go, Peter."
(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is bchanco@bayantel.com.ph)