Government moves to force Estrada nominees out of San Miguel

Malacañang is moving on all fronts, including seeking a Surpeme Court order this week to force five nominees of deposed President Joseph Estrada into leaving their juicy posts in food and drink giant San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

At the same time, Malacañang’s legal team led by Presidential Legal Adviser Avelino Cruz will ask for an extension of the Jan. 20 deadline for government to name its directors in SMC. Finance Secretary Alberto Romulo said the Jan. 20 deadline dictated by SMC’s by-laws, is not a realistic deadline since it was only the first day that President Arroyo took over.

Romulo said government is also asking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow government to get proxies from other shareholders. He said government is moving to prepare for the May 3 annual stockholders’ meeting which is also the schedule for the election of the 15 directors of SMC.

In a separate interview, Cruz said the Government Service Insurance System and the Social Security System, which hold a combined 12-percent stake in SMC, will be filing proxy statements with SEC to get voting rights from other member-shareholders.

Cruz said the five Estrada nominees refuse to leave their posts even if their terms as directors of SMC are co-terminus with that of Estrada who left Malacañang on Jan. 20.

The five directors who claim that their terms do not expire until May 3, are: Raul de Guzman, brother-in-law of Estrada, film producer Espiridion Laxa, Ben Paulino, Alan Lee and Dr. Hermogenes Tantoco.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has sent several letters to these nominees, asking them to leave since they no longer have the authority to represent the PCGG in SMC.

The PCGG which sequestered 27 percent of SMC shares is entitled to five board seats in SMC, while the SSS and GSIS are good for one board seat each.

The government believes it has the right to 47 percent of SMC, including the 20-percent stake of Cojuangco and the 27-percent sequestered shares, since these were acquired using coconut levy funds imposed on coconut farmers during the Marcos administration. Cojuangco then administered the levy funds and is believed to have used the funds to buy shares in SMC and the United Coconut Planters Bank.

The anti-graft body, the Sandiganbayan, has yet to rule on the disputed shares.

Malacañang has named some nominees to the SMC board. They include Renato Valencia, former SSS chairman and president, Octavio V. Espiritu, former president of Far East Bank and Trust Company which merged with the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Leo Alvez, head of the Presidential Security Guard, Franklin Fuentebella, a prominent Bacolod business leader and former Court of Appeals Justice Hector Hofilena. – Rocel Felix