Yasay blames Estrada

Embattled Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr. reiterated yesterday his allegation that President Estrada should be blamed for the crisis now gripping the local stock market.

"The President is the one who should be blamed for the plunge of the stock market, and he should be blamed for the fall of the economy," Yasay said in a speech before the Kilosbayan forum in Manila.

Mr. Estrada had earlier said Yasay is responsible for the erosion of investors' confidence in the Philippine capital market. The Chief Executive directed Presidential Legal Counsel Magdangal Elma to study the possibility of charging the SEC chief with economic sabotage.

"If there is anyone to be charged with economic sabotage, it is not me. I need not make it clear who should be charged instead," Yasay said, apparently referring to Mr. Estrada.

Yasay, who is due to step down on March 25, also threatened to recall his resignation if Malacañang insisted on suspending him for the remaining days of his tenure.

"If he suspends me, I will revoke my resignation and I will go to court and I don't think the court would be able to resolve the matter immediately," Yasay stressed.

"I would go back to work until my term expires in 2004 and the President will have a bigger problem," he added.

He lamented that the Chief Executive did not support his administration of the capital market.

Yasay had a falling out with the Estrada administration after he testified during a Senate committee hearing that Mr. Estrada called him up a few times last year to inquire about the ongoing SEC probe of alleged price manipulation and insider trading involving the gaming firm Best World Resources Corp. (BWRC) headed by presidential friend Dante Tan.

Yasay also alleged that Mr. Estrada already cleared Tan of any wrongdoing although the investigations were still incomplete.

Meanwhile, Senate President Blas Ople branded Yasay as "the worst calamity" to hit the PSE and the stock market.

"Going back to the developments in the past weeks, it seems that Mr. Yasay has been the real calamity in the PSE. All this turbulence is a matter of his doing," Ople told reporters.

He said Yasay, in a bid to cling to his post, has kept seeking refuge behind the constitutional provision on security of tenure "which was never intended to protect incompetence and dereliction of duty."

Ople expressed confidence that with Yasay's departure on March 25, the stock market would bounce back, adding that Mr. Estrada took the right move in accepting Yasay's resignation.

The senator also said the forthcoming passage of the Revised Securities Act would help restore investors' confidence in the PSE.

Citing a report by Speaker Manuel Villar and House Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas, Ople said the measure is now on second reading at the House.

Ople said Villar has assured him the measure would be passed before Congress goes on its Lenten recess beginning April 15.

In another development, Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo underscored the importance of transparency in the probe of the BWRC scandal.

Addressing the Life Underwriters Association of the Philippines at the Philippine International Convention Center, Arroyo said the stock market was being thrown into disarray by a perceived lack of transparency.

"While the stock exchange is only part of the economy, it is the barometer of investors' confidence in the economy," she added. -- With Perseus Echeminada, Jess Diaz