AGN Phils seeks disqualification of government rep in ETPI board

Australian Gigaherts Network Philippines (AGNP), which owns 40 percent of Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc., (ETPI) is seeking the disqualification of lawyer Emil Jurado as government representative in ETPI, citing his administrative conviction by the Supreme Court of an offense involving moral turpitude.

Lawyer Jack de Vera of MRReyes and Associates, the law firm representing AGNP, said that an administrative conviction is a ground for disqualification of a director of any corporation under Paragraph 5 (c) of SEC Memorandum Circular No. 2, Series of 2002, more popularly known as the "Code of Corporate Governance."

"Mr. Emiliano Jurado could be said to have been administratively convicted (cited for contempt) by the Supreme Court in court in accordance with Section 6, Rule 71 of the Rules of Court as a result of his comments regarding a case involving Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and ETPI," De Vera said.

In the Supreme Court’s own words: "Jurado’s actuations, in the context in which they were done, demonstrate gross irresponsibility, and indifference to factual accuracy and the injury that he might cause to the name and reputation of those of whom he wrote.

They constitute contempt of court, directly tending as they do to degrade or abase the administration of justice and the judges engaged in that function. By doing them, he has placed himself beyond the circle of reputable, decent and responsible journalists who live by their Code or the "Golden Rule" and who strive at all times to maintain the prestige and nobility of their calling."

Jurado, together with another Presidential Commission on Good Government-nominated director Basilio Cruz and Pablo Lobregat (representing the Nieto group), unceremoniously voted out Roger Buckeridge of his chairmanship of the ETPI board on May 10, 2005.

Buckeridge is a representative of Australian Gigahertz Network International Pty. Ltd., that owns 40 percent of ETPI, entitling it to two board seats.

As of 2003, ETPI operated an international tecommunications gateway and had around 4,000 corporate clients, 12,000 residential customers and 14 POPs nationwide, with more than 50 percent of the country’s local Internet traffic going through its network.