PSE vows to aid SEC in running after guilty parties in BW scandal

Although hindered by a court order, the Philippine Stock Exchange has indicated its willingness to help and cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the pursuit of the case against guilty individuals, including broers, in the BW Resources trading scandal.

PSE president Ramon T. Garcia said the Exchange welcomes the move by the SEC to complete the investigation of the BW case and refile its report with the Department of Justice, where two earlier versions were practically turned down.

"It is about time that the BW case is put to rest. The truth most come out," Garcia said.

The SEC is set to submit its third report on BW (now traded as Fairmont Holdings) to the DoJ no later than this week. SEC Chairman Lilia Bautista indicated that there are about 30 new individuals implicated in the trading fiasco, which nearly caused the collapse of the stock market early last year following the involvement of highly placed individuals in the Estrada administration, notably on-line bingo owner and presidential friend Dante Tan.

Tan and his lawyers subsequently secured a court order restraining the PSE from further investigating the case which stemmed from the public release of the report of the PSE’s Compliance and Surveillance Group a little over a year ago.

The SEC, a quasi-judicial body, then took over the probe but its findings were soon forwarded to the DoJ for the proper filing of criminal cases against the responsible parties. Except for Tan, fellow BW investor Jimmy Juan and BW president Eduardo Lim Jr., the rest of the accused individuals and top officials of brokerage firms were cleared by the DoJ for lack of evidence.

The SEC has filed two reports with the DOJ seeking the filing of appropriate charges for stock fraud, a violation of the Revised Securities Act, against more than 50 individuals including the three abovementioned names, eight brokerage houses and two investment firms.

The prior DoJ ruling had prompted the PSE to comment that "this decision only affirms the fact that these people were merely acting in their capacity as brokers, and were in no way directly involved with the manipulation of stocks and other violations of the Securities Act."

"However, in pursuit of ferreting out the truth, the rights of all parties and affected brokers to due process must be respected," Garcia said of the latest SEC move to re-open the BW case.

"Our concern is the impact on the integrity of the stock exchange if brokers are indiscriminately and unjustly dragged into the case without due process," he added.