Palace to Roxas: Settle dispute between Mazda, FMC immediately

Malacañang has intervened to resolve the dispute between Francisco Motor Corp. (FMC) and Mazda Motors of Japan by asking Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II to act on the matter swiftly.

According to FMC chairman Fernando Francisco, "I am hopeful that action will now be taken."

He said that FMC’s case against Mazda is like "fighting a giant."

Francisco lamented that the government is not giving "co-equal right" to the only Filipino participant in the Motor Vehicle Development Program (MVDP).

He said that under the rules of MVDP, any complain presented by a participant should be acted upon within 30 days.

FMC’s case against Mazda has been dragging on for two years.

Francisco claimed that Mazda "tricked" FMC into allowing Ford’s entry into the country and assembling at least two motor vehicle models that directly competed with FMC agreement with Mazda for the same vehicles.

Mazda is 33 percent controlled by Ford Motor Co. USA.

Francisco said that FMC was prepared to give way to Mazda but merely wanted just compensation for the 25 years that the company had built up and established the market for Mazda.

"Based on our computations, FMC deserved a compensation of $66 million," Francisco said.

However, he said FMC is willing to compromise and lower its request based on certain conditions.

These would include the grant of some dealership to FMC.

FMC has also been seeking the nullification of the registration of Ford’s right to assemble the Ford Ranger model which is based on FMC’s original registration for the B-series pick-up models and the E-series econovans.

FMC claims that it had an agreement with Mazda to assemble the B25 pick-up model and econovan up to October 2002.

Mazda allegedly did not live up to its end of the agreement and instead allowed Ford to locally assemble the models FMC was supposed to assemble.