UOBL head in hot water

A Manila court has ordered the deposition of the chairman of the United Overseas Bank Ltd. (UOBL) of Singapore on the controversial buyout deal of the Singaporean investors of the former Westmont Bank now operating under the name United Overseas Bank of the Philippines (UOPB).

Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 46 ordered the deposition of UOBL chairman Wee Cho Yaw to force the full disclosure of the details of the buy-out agreement of the bank controlled by the family of former Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu on the motion of the Farmix Group, minority stockholders of UOPB who said they had been unfairly and illegally left out of the deal.

The order of the Manila court covers not only the deposition taking of Wee but also the depositions of UOBP president Chua Teng Hui, Philippine food giant Jollibee chairman and president Tony Tan Caktiong, and businessman John Espiritu, son of the former Finance Secretary, a procedure intended to compel the Singaporean and the Espiritu group to disclose details in their settlement group withheld from the Farmix Group.

The Farmix Group used to be part of the former controlling shareholders of Westmont Bank but dissasociated itself from the group of the former Finance Secretary.