Philcomsat row far from over

There’s more trouble brewing at the Philippine Communications Satellite Corp. (Philcomsat).

In the latest twist of events in a long-running conflict between two groups vying for control of the company, the legal counsel of the bloc led by Carmelo Africa Jr. asked the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to "take the appropriate action against (Manuel) Nieto Jr. and his group to prevent them from further subverting the desire of Her Excellency (President Arroyo) for a smooth assumption of the PCGG nominees as government directors of Philcomsat."

In a letter to PCGG Chairman Haydee Yorac, Samuel Divina assailed the March 22 special meeting of the Philcomsat board of directors presided by Nieto wherein two new PCGG nominees were elected along with the new company officers.

"The foregoing acts clearly constitute a mockery of the judicial rulings already issued by both the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court categorically declaring the rump board election held on Aug. 27,1998 by the said Nieto-led group as illegal," Divina said.

He added it was the intention of the said group to represent themselves as the alleged directors of Philcomsat and "to further sow chaos and confusion in order to perpetuate themselves in power as they have managed to still do so in Philcomsat Holdings Corp. (PHC), a publicly-listed corporation, 81 percent of the shares of which is owned by Philcomsat."

PHC itself is under threat of being delisted by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) for its repeated failure to fulfill reportorial requirements on time, principally its financial statements.

Aside from having two contending boards, Philcomsat also has two sets of external auditors – SGV and Co., which was reportedly relieved and replaced by Vicente Reyes & Associates.

Just last week, the PCGG appointed three new nominees to fill up the seats left by the directors who were elected during the time of President Estrada.

Julio Jalandoni replaced controversial businessman Pacifico Marcelo III; Manuel Andal took over from Edgardo Villanueva; and Enrique Locsin was put in to replace Africa himself.

Yet yesterday, Locsin was barred from entering the Philcomsat offices and assume his duties as the new chairman and director by the legal team led by Divina, forcing police and local government officials to intervene.

Divina was questioning the authority of Locsin to assume the firm’s chairmanship in lieu of Africa, pointing out that his (Locsin’s) election as chairman was illegal.

In the March 22 meeting, Locsin was installed as the new chairman to replace Ronaldo Salonga while Nieto was elected president.

The legal counsel of the Nieto camp, meanwhile, said the issues raised by Divina are all still pending in the courts, which implies that the Nieto group still has control of Philcomsat’s "before the other side illegally took over."

"Why are they not allowing Mr. Locsin to assume office when it was known that President Arroyo wished to effect a smooth transition in the company?," the Nieto lawyers said.

Philcomsat corporate secretary Amado Santiago last week said with the filling in of the three new PCGG nominees, the board of directors will reconvene this week to elect Honorio Poblador III as the new president after Africa agreed to step down to give way to the new appointees.