PCGG to recover more from SMC shares

MANILA, Philippines - While the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) reaped a windfall from its sale of preferred shares in San Miguel Corp. in the last quarter of 2012, the agency said it stands to recover more from a seemingly forgotten four percent stake it still unquestionably owns in SMC.

PCGG chairman Andres Bautista said that they have continued to follow up the execution of the transfer of ownership of the shares equivalent to a four percent stake in SMC to the government.

If sold, Bautista said that the stake was estimated to bring in P15 billion to P20 billion to the national treasury.

The four percent stake is separate from the disputed 20 percent shares being claimed by businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., and the 24 percent already declared as bought with coconut levy funds that are prima facie public funds.

Bautista said they had filed an urgent motion before the Supreme Court (SC) for the execution of the transfer of the four percent SMC shares now classified as treasury shares.

This motion reiterated previous requests sent to SMC regarding an almost forgotten SC final ruling issued in 2000, which upheld government’s ownership of the 26.45 million shares equivalent to a four percent stake in SMC.

Bautista said that the urgent motion merely seeks to implement a final and executory decision of the Sandiganbayan and the SC.

Taking into consideration stock and cash dividends issued on the shares, and at the present publicly traded rate of P105 to P110 per SMC share in the Philippine Stock Exchange, the PCGG sees the subject SMC shares to be worth more than P15 billion.

Government ownership of the additional four percent SMC bloc was discovered after an exhaustive audit by the Bautista-led PCGG in the second half of 2010.

Among the documents found in the scrutiny of all pending legal cases and documents on agreements was a September 2003 letter of the late PCGG chairman Haydee Yorac to SMC corporate secretary Francis Jardeleza, demanding the delivery of the SMC shares to PCGG, invoking a series of Sandiganbayan rulings, and the final and executory decision of the SC in 2000 dismissing the petition of SMC contesting the rulings of the Sandiganbayan.