Cafe fight

An information for estafa was recommended to be filed against an owner of the popular  “Henny Penny Cafe” for allegedly defrauding his partner by using corporate funds to benefit another company of whom he is also a stockholder and  who annexed for himself related deals.

Pasig assistant city prosecutor Myrna Binalay recommended that Jerry Tan Lao be charged with one count of estafa for misappropriation or conversion before the Pasig City Regional Trial Court.

Binalay said that Lao, as manager of Subarashii, violated the trust and confidence of his partner, Nelson Ong, and the corporation when he used the funds of Subarashii to pay the obligations of another corporation (Aomori) of whom he is a stockholder.

Surabeshii, where both Ong and Lao are stockholders, is doing business under the name and style of “Yumemiya,” and is engaged in establishing and maintaining restaurants and  coffee shops, among others.

In an earlier commercial action, Ong also accused Lao of disloyalty, acquiring a conflict of interest and bad faith in directing the affairs of the corporation by controlling companies in direct competition with Surabeshii such as Aomori, one of Subarashii’s coffee suppliers, and Shinwa Food Co. Ltd, more popularly known as “Henny Penny Cafe.”

In the criminal complaint, Lao was accused of issuing checks in the name of Subarashii as payment for Aomori’s expenses for the uniform of its employees, electric bills, and, plumbing and sanitary works.

In an earlier separate action filed with the commercial courts, Ong prayed for accounting, receivership and the creation of a management committee on behalf of the corporation after Lao allegedly refused to render an accounting and in order to preserve the assets of Surabashii.

Lao was allegedly responsible for the closure of Subarashii due to unexplainably high food cost percentage which was 225 percent of the sales considering that the only items served are coffee and pasta, Ong said. Though the minority of the shareholders objected, Lao closed the operations which he was solely managing. 

Ong also accused Lao of overpricing  the unit cost per item, changing the ingredients used in food production, resulting in deteriorated quality and altering  the serving size of food, all of which the complainant said led to Yumemiya’s closure.

Anti-investor stance

Arnel Casanova, president of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), is one government official who has earned the ire of so many businessmen.

His occupying the position has already been questioned. According to lawyer Howard Calleja under the BCDA Law, the chairman of the BCDA is also its concurrent president and that this only changed when then-President Arroyo had, contrary to the law, split the two positions and named one person as BCDA chairman and another as BCDA president.

But Casanova still goes about his business in his usual devil-may-care style.

First, there was Casanova’s attempt to forcibly take over Poro Point. Fortunately, the San Fernando, La Union Regional Trial Court issued a TRO immediately following the armed takeover of the facility.

He then turns his attention to Camp John Hay. The developer of Camp John Hay—(Camp John Hay Development Corp. or CJHDevCo—has a 50-year lease that ends in 2046, but Casanova claims that CJHDevCo only has a 25-year lease that is about to expire and warns locators to stop doing business with it and deal directly with BCDA instead.

Most recently, he caused the filing against CJHDevCo officials of 52 counts of malversation even if the crime of malversation only applies to government officials.  It’s good that 50 counts had already been dismissed.

In Metro Manila, Casanova wanted to forcibly demolish the homes of retired and active military personnel residing at a portion of the diplomatic and consular area in Bonifacio South, Taguig City last July 2012.

The problem, however, is that the structures were not even part of BCDA’s jurisdiction. The portions to be demolished were not part of the so-called Jusmag (Joint US Military Advisory Group), but were part of the diplomatic and consular area, so the eviction order from Casanova could not be legal.

And most recently, Casanova personally went to the site of the latest development of SM in Taguig and reportedly harassed SM staff and security to stop their business.

The property actually was donated by BCDA to the Taguig City government without any restrictions. Taguig bidded out the contract to use the property and SM won. But BCDA still wants to interfere.

Then of course we still have the still the unresolved issue between BCDA, which developed the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), and the Metro Pacific group which has won the right to operate the tollroad. Their interim contract to manage it is expiring soon and Metro Pacific has again sweetened its offer but still no word from Malacanang, no thanks to an unsupportive BCDA management.

Talking about an anti-business BCDA head.

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