Tonyboy appeals SC decision on PLDT stake

Businessman Antonio ‘Tonyboy’ Cojuangco has filed a motion asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision ordering the reconveyance to the government of his family’s stake in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) for being part of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

The assets ordered reconveyed to the government, estimated to be worth over P20 billion, consist of 111,415 shares of the Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp. (PTIC) registered in the name of Prime Holdings Inc. (PHI) owned by the Cojuangcos.

Cojuangco’s group said in their motion for reconsideration that there was no basis in fact and law in concluding that the PHI shares are owned by the Marcoses. The SC, in its decision promulgated last Jan. 20, relied heavily on the depositions by Marcos crony Jose Yao Campos that PHI was set up for the Marcoses.

PTIC, 46 percent of which is held by PHI and the rest by First Pacific and Metro Pacific Holdings, currently has a 14- percent stake in PLDT. In effect, PHI owns seven percent of PLDT.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has revealed plans of immediately disposing of the PHI shares in PTIC, even as The STAR earlier reported that the companies is keenly eyeing the acquisition of these shares are First Pacific and Metro Pacific to make sure that no other entity gets into PTIC.

PTIC’s stakeholdings in PLDT are considered crucial in ensuring First Pacific’s control of the country’s largest telecommunications company. Together with Japan’s NTT group which has reportedly entered into a new agreement to vote with First Pacific as one "for the purpose of safeguarding PLDT from hostile transferees," the First Pacific-NTT tandem now owns about 45 percent of PLDT’s outstanding shares.

The new agreement was reportedly a safeguard just in case First Pacific fails to acquire PHI’s stake in PTIC when sold by PCGG. Under the deal, First Pacific, NTT Communications, and NTT DoCoMo (the two NTT subsidiaries owning a combined 14-percent stake in PLDT) may transfer their shares only after offering to sell them to the members of the alliance.

First Pacific earlier informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that as the biggest holder of common voting shares in PLDT, it intends to maintain its influence through its representation in PLDT’s board.

In an earlier interview with The STAR, PCGG commissioner Ricardo Abcede, who heads the commission’s asset management department, revealed that they are just waiting for the SC decision to be final and executory in order to finally sell the 111,415 PHI shares in PTI.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales and promulgated last Jan. 20, the SC ordered the reconveyance by the estate of Ramon Cojuangco, Imelda Cojuangco, PHI, their assigns, nominees and agents to the government of 111,415 shares of PHI in PTIC. The High Tribunal’s ruling did not affect the shares of First Pacific and Metro Pacific Holdings in PTIC which these two companies acquired from the Cojuangcos.

It will be recalled that the Sandiganbayan lifted the sequestration of said shares by the PCGG after the government failed to prove that the PLDT shares sought to be recovered are ill-gotten.The SC decision was a consolidated ruling on five petitions, including one filed by the Yuchengcos claiming ownership of said PHI shares in PTIC, relating to the action of the graft court.

Once the decision becomes final and executory, he revealed that the government will immediately dispose of the said shares in PLDT. "Our mandate is to privatize and dispose, and not to hold on to those shares," he told The STAR.

He disclosed that he has already formed a team that will recommend strategies as to the sale of the shares as a block, estimated to fetch at least P20 billion for the government. "We do not have any plans of holding on to those shares longer than necessary. Our mandate is to privatize and sell the assets to the highest bidder," Abcede said, even as he emphasized that the sale will be conducted, without giving any preference to particular groups including existing major shareholders of PLDT.

Once a sale of the PLDT shares is made, the disposition will have to be approved by the privatization council under the Department of Finance.