Business exec denies diverting money of tollway development firm

A businessman denied accusations yesterday that he diverted P100 million from a tollways development company to another firm.

Cesar Quiambao, president and chairman of the board of the Strategic Alliance Corp. (STRADEC), said the new estafa charges filed against him at the Department of Justice last week was meant to divert the syndicated estafa case he filed against officers of the Star Infrastructure Development Corp. (SIDC).

SIDC is a toll development company formed through a partnership with STRADEC and three other companies.

The Quiambao-controlled STRADEC was a sub-contractor of SIDC in the Star Tollways project in Batangas.

Quiambao said STRADEC, which owns 49 percent of the SIDC, had released loans for the formation and operation of SIDC. He was the former chairman of the board of SIDC.

Quiambao told a press briefing at The Sulo Hotel in Quezon City that the new estafa case filed by Luis Turgo, administrative and general affairs officer of SIDC, was the same case filed by businessman Bede Tabalingcos last year that was dismissed by the Pasig City prosecutor’s office on Feb. 24 this year.

Danny Cariño, Quiambao’s consultant, said SIDC allegedly used a different name but used the same complaint and filed it at the justice department.

Cariño said the allegations were already answered and dismissed by Pasig City prosecutors.

He said Turgo, the new complainant of the case, together with other SIDC officers, was among the respondents in the syndicated estafa case filed by Quiambao in connection with the alleged illegal transfer of 49 percent of STRADEC shares held in SIDC to Robert Wong, an SIDC incorporator.

The SIDC shares were later transferred to a company called Cypress Tress Inc., said Cariño.

In an eight-page affidavit complaint filed by Turgo, Quiambao was accused of estafa for the alleged misappropriation and unauthorized disbursement of SIDC funds.

Turgo said Quiambao, who served as chief executive officer and treasurer of SIDC from 1997 to 2004, should be held liable for estafa for misappropriating more than P100 million of the company’s funds.

"Quiambao’s diversion of SIDC funds is a systematic plunder of the corporation’s funds," Turgo said.

Turgo said Quiambao diverted the bulk of funds of SIDC to his relatives and to the companies that he controlled without the approval of the SIDC board and the fund releases lacked the corresponding documents.

Turgo said Quiambao, as the treasurer of SIDC, ordered the unauthorized release of P46 million to Strategic Alliance Holdings Inc. (SAHI), a company owned by Quiambao.