Cojuangcos seek SC okay for new appeal

The family of businessman Antonio "Tonyboy" Cojuangco is seeking the Supreme Court’s approval for a second motion for reconsideration on an earlier ruling forfeiting in favor of the government the family’s shares in Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp.(PTIC) valued at around P25 billion.

The Supreme Court has already dismissed the first motion for reconsideration filed by the estate of the late Ramon U. Cojuangco over the decision forfeiting 111,415 shares of PTIC held by Prime Holdings Inc. (PHI) representing 46.13 percent of PTIC. PHI is a company owned by the Cojuangco family but the SC said it was a mere dummy corporation of the late President Marcos.

PTIC, which is majority-owned by the Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd. owns 14 percent of telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). PHI’s stake in PTIC, in turn translates to a 6.62- percent stake in PLDT.

PCGG commissioner Ricardo Abcede told The STAR that they are still awaiting for the SC’s decision on PHI’s application for leave of court to file a second motion for reconsideration. If the application is denied, the High Court’s ruling on the forfeiture becomes final and executory.

As soon as the decision becomes final, Abcede said his priority as head of the asset management group is dispose these shares at the highest price possible, the proceeds of which will be remitted to the national treasury for the land reform program.

PCGG is currently looking at several modes of disposing of the PTIC shares. These include direct sale to a government financial institution, secondary offering, competitive public bidding, and negotiated sale to a strategic buyer.

"But as much as possible, we will sell the PTIC shares as a block and at a premium price than its current market value," Abcede said.

At least two groups have already expressed serious intentions of acquiring the PTIC shares. These are the First Pacific group which currently controls PTIC, as well as Japan’s NTT group, which wants to increase its stake in PLDT by another six percent.

First Pacific managing director and CEO Manuel Pangilinan, also chairman of PLDT, earlier told The STAR that it makes sense for their group, being the majority owners, to acquire the remaining PTIC shares in order to consolidate their ownership of the company. "We are definitely making a bid for it," he said.

NTT’s wireline subsidiary NTT Communications and wireless operator DoCoMo own seven percent each in PLDT, or a combined 14 percent. Under an agreement with First Pacific, the NTT group can own not more than 20 percent of PLDT to ensure First Pacific‚s control of the country’s largest telecommunications company with its 24-percent shareholdings.

The 20-percent ceiling set for the NTT group was included in the cooperation agreement signed by PLDT, DoCoMo, NTT Com and First Pacific last Jan. 31, the same day DoCoMo agreed to buy 12.63 million shares of PLDT from NTT Com for $440 million.

A representative from NTT said in an interview with The STAR that it is difficult to accumulate the remaining six percent from the market so they prefer to acquire these through a block sale, either by acquiring the shares of the Social Security System (SSS) in PLDT if SSS decides to sell or by making a bid for the PTIC shares in PLDT.

In a six-page en banc resolution, the High Court junked with finality the motions for reconsideration and motion to set oral arguments filed by PHI and the motion for reconsideration seeking to reverse the Jan. 20, 2006 ruling of the Supreme Court filed by Alfonso T. Yuchengco and the Y Realty Corp.

The SC said no new points had been raised by the PHI and the Cojuangcos because "the point raised in the motions merely reiterated those in the pleadings and that they were already considered by this court in arriving at its decision."

In its Jan. 22 decision, the SC noted that the beneficial owners of PHI are Imelda Marcos, her late husband and their family.

It added that the incorporators of PHI, namely Jose Campos Jr., Rolando Gapud, Renato Lirio, Gervaso Gaviola and Ernesto Abalos, were all trustees/nominees of the Marcoses, and therefore no third party, including the Cojuangcos, could have lawfully and rightfully acquired any right over said shares in their own right.