Court asked to create mancom for cellphone retail company

Shareholders of cellular phone retail giant Semicon asked the Pasig City Regional Trial Court on Tuesday to create a management committee that would take over the firm’s business operations in the event of its "imminent paralyzation."

In a 35-page complaint affidavit, Benito Chua and Wilson Go said the questionable ownership of Semicon and the possible conviction in various criminal cases not to mention the deportation proceedings being faced by the firm’s president Leonardo Villalon might lead to the company’s dissolution.

"In the face of possible criminal prosecution and conviction of defendant Leonardo (Villalon), based on numerous counts of Perjury, Illegal Use of Alias, violations of the Anti-Dummy Law, and violations of the Retail Trade Liberalization act of 2000, there exists the imminent danger of paralyzation of its business operations, clearly prejudicial to Plaintiffs, creditors, and the general public," Chua and Go said in the affidavit.

Through their counsels, the complainants also sought for the appointment of an External Auditor to look into the Semicon’s financial status.

Despite their repeated pleas in the past, the complainants said Villalon has deprived them of their rights as stockholders to know the real status of the company’s finances.

On the invitation of Villalon, Chua and Go said they joined Semicon as stockholders in 1988. But their business relationship with Villalon went sour sometime in 2001 following a dispute, which later led to their removal as directors of Semicon.

The complainants alleged that their shares of stocks which if combined would amount to about 10 percent of Semicon’s total shares have been diluted to a substantial quantity.

Chua and Go also alleged that Villalon has put up at least four other corporations with the members of his immediate family as majority stockholders, using Semicon’s earnings but without prior approval from other stockholders.

"Defendants have no other source of income aside from Semicon where they receive compensations as officers thereof, clearly insufficient to raise of the paid-up capitals of said corporations," they added.

Founded in 1976 by the Villalons, Semicon has since emerged as one of the country’s leading companies in the telecommunication industry. In a recent survey among the country’s top 1,000 corporations, Semicon landed the second spot in terms of sales in cellular phone units.

Villalon, a.k.a. Basilio Leon Chua, was arrested in February after immigration authorities discovered he has been using a Philippine passport despite his registration as an alien in 1975.

Aside from faking his citizenship, Villalon is also facing charges that include concubinage, slight physical injuries, and non-remittance of social security service contributions.

Lawyers of Chua and Go are now pushing for the immediate deportation of Villalon and the cancellation of his passport by the Foreign Affairs Department citing critical documents now in their possession.