Sandigan stops PCGG, PMS from naming appointees to POTC, Philcomsat

The Sandiganbayan has issued a 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) to the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) to defer the appointment of new government nominees to the board of directors of controversial telecommunications firms Philippine Overseas Telecommunications Corp. (POTC) and Philippine Communications Satellite Corp. (Philcomsat).

In a five-page order issued by Justice Ma. Cristina Cortez-Estrada, the anti-graft court directed the PCGG and the PMS, particularly Undersecretary Enrique Perez, to maintain a status quo in the top management structure of the two firms and to refrain from recognizing the results of a supposed illegal stockholders’ meeting conducted last Nov. 19, where a set of new government nominees was installed by Perez.

The TRO was issued after a petition was filed last month by Concepcion Poblador, a director and vice president of POTC and Philcomsat, questioning the authority of Perez to install the new nominees despite the alleged absence of a “desire letter” from President Arroyo.

Perez had named businessman Ramon “RJ” Jacinto, former National Telecommunications Commission chairman retired Rear Admiral Abraham Abesamis, retired justice Santiago Ranada, labor leader Allan Montano, Lakas-CMD deputy secretary general Rodolfo Serrano, and lawyer Daniel Gutierrez to the POTC and Philcomsat boards in the Nov. 19 stockholders’ meeting.

The meeting was called by the board of directors led by Erlinda Ilusorio Bildner and Victor Africa, who are fighting Poblador and her allies, former government nominees Enrique Locsin, Manuel Andal, Julio Jalandoni and Guy de Leon.

Perez’s attendance at the Bildner-Africa board’s meeting showed the government’s recognition of the faction’s legitimacy.

Poblador, in her petition, branded the stockholders’ meeting called by the Bildner-Africa group as an illegal assembly and claimed that Perez had no mandate from Malacañang to exercise the government’s proxy to vote its 35 percent stake in POTC and Philcomsat.

Poblador said that the appointment of nominees by Malacañang should come with a desire letter signed by the President herself, as was the case when Locsin, Andal, Jalandoni and De Leon were appointed in 2002.

The anti-graft court, for its part, ruled in favor of issuing the TRO after finding the complaint to be sufficient in form and substance and considering the necessity to maintain the status quo lest grave and irreparable injury would befall plaintiff before the hearing of the main incident.

One of the new government nominees, Gutierrez, recently brushed off the charges of Poblador that Perez had acted without the mandate of Malacañang in electing them to the boards of the two firms.

Gutierrez showed copies of the desire letter from Malacañang that named them as the new nominees to the POTC and Philcomsat to reporters but the letter was signed by Bernardino Abes, head of the Palace search committee and co-signed by then Acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera.