Iggy Arroyo's first wife indicted

The Quezon City Prosecutor’s office has indicted Marilene Jacinto, first wife of the late Negros Occidental Congressman Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, for falsification of public documents. The indictment stemmed from a complaint by Marilene’s brother – Ramon “RJ” Jacinto – president of the family-owned Oregon Land Inc., alleging that Marilene faked a Deed of Absolute Sale and presented the same to the Quezon City Register of Deeds to have the ownership of the P300-million Novaliches property transferred to her name.

The indictment is only the latest in the long-running Jacinto family saga marked by infighting among siblings over their inheritance. The late family patriarch Don Fernando Jacinto is the acknowledged founder of the steel industry. Don Fernando’s father, Nicanor Sr., is also one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce and Security Bank, and together with the steel mill in Iligan City plus vast land holdings, the family wealth expanded to great heights. The Jacinto children lived the kind of opulence and extravagance that most other people could only dream about. At a young age, they were living in the lap of luxury, driving around in the flashiest cars and mingling with the scions of society’s most elite. As a matter of fact, RJ would be seen driving around the Ateneo campus in a red and white Thunderbird – at a time when the T-Bird was just being introduced locally – while another brother went around in a Jaguar.

Dispute over inheritance shattered the relationship between the siblings – a fact that Ramon Jacinto feels very emotional about, sources disclosed. Marilene was appointed administrator of the estate of the late Don Fernando and also took over management of the various family corporations when brothers Joselito and Fernando (Pocholo) retired after the 1997 Asian crisis that hit many businesses – which is when all the trouble allegedly started, the same sources said.

In 2007, Marilene sold the 350-hectare property of the family in Misamis Oriental for P226 million – considered ridiculously low by the other siblings and prompting them to run to RJ for help. At the time, RJ had kept his distance from the other siblings but nevertheless hired an appraiser who said the family property was worth P2.5 billion. According to sources, Marilene – whose former marriage to the late Congressman reportedly gave her considerable connections – succeeded in selling the property to the Philippine Veterans Industrial Development Corp. (Phividec) at less than 10 percent of the appraised value. (Phividec subsequently leased the property to Korean ship builder Hanjin for the latter’s $2- billion shipyard project.)

The rift among the siblings escalated with Marilene accused of squandering the family finances and running away with the others’ share – already little as it is – from the sale of the property. Court records of email exchanges (between 2007 and 2008) among the siblings revealed the acrimony and frustration especially among the other sisters who felt betrayed by Marilene. Two of the Jacinto sisters, Lilibeth and Nannette, passed away in 2009 and 2010 due to cancer while Pocholo died a year later. Sources close to the family allege that the death of RJ’s three younger siblings must have been caused by the stress and unhappiness over the infighting.

The Jacinto family saga is just one among many where with a family’s vast wealth can be dissipated due to quarrels over inheritance, or when an errant family member decides to put his or her welfare first over the others. It also does not pay when a family member with little or no knowledge of the business is put in charge, observers noted. But perhaps one of the biggest lessons is for children not to depend on the riches built by their fathers and instead, learn or at least try to stand on their own two feet – like what RJ did when at the early age of 15, he set up a backyard gig which saw the birth of the legendary RJ radio station. Today, Ramon continues to do what he loves – playing the guitar, and parlaying his passion into a multi-million peso guitar manufacturing business.

Tycoons as Ambassadors to China

Several Filipino-Chinese businessmen are looking at PAL chairman Lucio Tan as our potential Ambassador to China at this time on account of “Kapitan’s” business interests in China plus the fact that he has contacts among Chinese officials. Another name that is being floated is Carlos Chan – also known as “Mr. Oishi.” Carlos is the son of immigrants from Fujian province, which also happens to be the birthplace of Lucio Tan. Carlos was in fact made an honorary citizen of Shanghai for his contribution in strengthening Philippine-Chinese business relations. Oishi is a very popular brand not only here in the Philippines but also in China where the company has a dozen manufacturing plants.

In any case, it would not seem to be a bad idea to consider the business tycoons who are already “familiar” names with Chinese officials and presumably would have easier access compared to other personalities, several Fil-Chinese businessmen noted.

Spy tidbit

Still on Philippines-China relations, sources claim that the botched ZTE-NBN deal continues to be a source of irritation for the Chinese who continue to feel embarrassed at any reference to corruption in relation to the scrapped project. But the underlying reason could be suspicions that the Americans are once again trying to exploit the past issue to advance their interests. It can be recalled that one of the bidders for the national broadband project was Aresco, an American firm that proposed to build the broadband network using American technology and suppliers. Then US Ambassador Kristie Kenney wrote a letter to former President Gloria Arroyo urging fairness and transparency in considering all bid proposals – but Aresco’s $135-million proposal was a far cry from ZTE’s $394-million bid. And the rest, as they say, is broadband history. Or is it?

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