Smoking gun?

Our pieces on what appears to be a questionable supply deal between the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the French firm Hologram Industries continue to spark reader interest.

But perhaps the best response came from the youth sector, the College Editors Guild of the Philippines or CEGP. Perhaps the youth knows that they will be inheriting the adverse fall out of transactions of this sort which is why they continue to raise a howl.

Unknown to many, the CEGP had picketed the DFA several times, demanding that DFA officials make the Hologram deal public and for the Ombudsman to take a look at their complaints regarding this deal. Hologram wants to exact 0.85 euros for every plastic laminate it puts into our passports, an amount believed to be way beyond the current cost.

In fact, a respected Singaporean firm, Oakwell Engineering has reportedly offered to supply the laminates at 0.15 euros per strip. Oakwell is willing to make the very same concessions and provide the technical assistance that Hologram has dangled to the DFA. Let’s see how DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo’s underlings will handle this offer.

This column has said enough about this issue. Time for Secretary Romulo and French Ambassador Gerard Chesnel to make their move.

As CEGP president Jose Cosido said, the Hologram deal is a P2.4-billion supply deal that just might be able to circumvent Philippine procurement laws. And these things happen because we, grown ups, don’t want to say our piece.

Classic crab mentality

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) commemorates another milestone — the successful maiden listing of Davao-based Phoenix Petroleum. About 15 times oversubscribed as early as three weeks ago, Phoenix has raised some P284 million from the exercise.

The first petroleum company to go public since the oil industry’s deregulation in 1998, Phoenix has been in operation barely four years and yet has already managed to corner five percent of the Mindanao market and attracted such clients as Cebu Pacific and Asian Spirit as well as international suppliers like PTT Thailand, Southeast Asia ’s largest petroleum company, and Emarat, the gulf-region’s leading petroleum product manufacturers.

But despite Phoenix’s success, there were attempts to derail the company’s successful listing. 

There were newspaper reports on a complaint filed by Oilink International Corp. (Oilink), the oil supply company of Unioil Petroleum Phils. with the SEC against Phoenix.

Seeking the revocation of the company’s certificate of registration, the complaint, anchored on a case filed before the Davao City RTC, alleged that Phoenix erred in its registration statement when it stated that “there are no material legal proceedings pending or threatened against the company or in which property of the company is the subject thereof.”

According to Phoenix, the complaint is misguided as it has nothing to do with Oilink and that it is a shareholder of Phoenix that is the subject of the complaint. The case has been dismissed for lack of merit.

Even more disturbing is the information that no less than a high official of the SEC (some even say related to legal counsel of the complaining party) was responsible for leaking Oilink’s complaint letter to the press even before its validity was investigated and determined. Maybe SEC chair Fe Barin should take a look at this one.

Analysts and oil industry players have opined that Oilink and its owners may still be smarting from the shelving of Oilink’s previously planned partnership with Udenna. That venture would have allowed the former presence in the growing markets of Mindanao but word has it that Oilink didn’t live up to its end of the deal. But that’s another story all-together.

Whatever the motives are, observers say it is more prudent for Oilink, the oil supply company of Unioil Petroleum Phils., and its owner Paul Co. to give more attention to the P315.9-million smuggling and tax evasion case the government has filed against them.  

Another case has also been filed by the Bureau of Customs against Oilink and its mother company Union Refinery Corp., seeking the collection of P138 million in unpaid taxes and duties incurred by the two companies from oil imports from 1991 to 1995. 

PCGG again?

Last weekend’s headlines were all about the PCGG again and how it lost what is seemingly a minor case in its bid to recover ill-gotten Marcos wealth. PCGG should move on and focus on the other larger, more important cases against the Marcoses and their cronies rather than be swayed to revisit the smaller ones that the courts have already decided on.

PCGG should bear in mind that it will never run out of detractors that will attempt to sensationalize minor and immaterial issues and cases against them that are blown out of proportion. 

Not so hidden agenda

NiHAO Mineral Resources International has officially listed its symbol Ni on the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Known previously as the publicly traded Magnum Holdings Inc. (MHI), the company received approval from the SEC to change its corporate name and purpose to reflect its current course and direction.

Based on recent disclosures, NiHAO’s primary purpose is now in the business of exploration, development and operation of mineral properties and the mining of metallic and non-metallic minerals including, but not limited to, nickel, gold, copper and the like.

Reports say NiHAO Mineral Resources International aims to leverage its mineral expertise to build up world-class tenements in the Philippines with strategic Chinese partners. NiHAO is also looking to acquire mining rights involving 7,103 hectares of nickel property in Botolan and Iba in Zambales. This is however subject to a due diligence study and valuation of the Botolan mining rights.

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