Itogon-Suyoc to sue Coyiuto

Itogon-Suyoc Mines, Inc. announced yesterday, through its chairman Roberto V. Ongpin, that it will file a multimillion damage suit against Robert Coyiuto.

"His continued harassment of ISM, especially his latest ploy of filing a ‘derivative’ suit, has caused untold damage to get away with it," Ongpin said. ISM is presently quantifying the damage Coyiuto’s actions have caused ISM, "but I can assure you it will be a substantial amount," Ongpin said.

"The problem with Mr. Coyiuto is that he seems unable to accept defeat gracefully. We can of course understand that he lost face when his stand against ISM was totally repudiated by the SEC. But what he is doing now is tantamount to a vendetta against ISM, and it is now time to put a stop to it," Ongpin said.

It will be recalled that the Listing Committee of the PSE, then chaired by Coyiuto, had refused to grant an exemption to ISM from the Rule on Additional Listing of Shares, despite the fact that such rule clearly provides for exemption in meritorious cases.

In the case of ISM, a moribund mining company, the entry of PhilWeb would have enabled it to transform itself into an information technology company, a move which was approved unanimously at a special stockholders’ meeting of ISM, in which over 92 percent of shareholders attended.

Coyiuto kept insisting that the minority shareholders of ISM were being prejudiced when clearly, the opposite was true, i.e. that ISM’s move was beneficial to all shareholders, majority and minority alike.

For more than a six-month period, Coyiuto, despite several appeals from ISM refused to grant the exemption, thus leaving ISM no alternative but to elevate the matter to the SEC. After a hearing conducted in January 2002, SEC fully upheld ISM’s position and directed Coyiuto and the Listing Committee to grant the exemption. Under existing rules, the SEC decision has now become final and executory and can no longer be appealed.

Despite the finality of the SEC decision, Coyiuto has recklessly opted to continue to try to derail ISM by filing a preposterous "derivative" suit. Unable to accept his repudiation at the SEC, and having lost the chairmanship of the PSE, he refuses to attend board meetings at the PSE knowing full well that his position on ISM would be defeated. Instead, he chooses to file a "derivative" suit on behalf of the PSE, which is preposterous in that he is an elected director of the PSE and not a simple shareholder.

"ISM will immediately file a motion with the court to dismiss this totally groundless "derivative" suit. Morever, in view of Coyiuto’s persistent and unreasonable attempts to persecute ISM which amounts to nothing more than harassment, ISM has decided to file this damage suit against Coyiuto," Ongpin said.