Legal feud continues at telecoms firm

To date, even as the Nieto Jr.-led group has recently taken over the rein of the Philippine Communication Satellite Inc. (Philcomsat), the company’s lawyer Samuel Divina, maintains that the above metioned group has continued to defy a court order declaring their assumption of office as illegal.

The group has already been indicted in Branch 64 of the Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) of Makati City for violation of Section 144 of the Corporation Code and Article 318 (Other Deceits) of the Revised Penal Code. The charge sheet accused Manuel Nieto Jr., Lourdes Africa, Luis Lokin Jr., Benito Araneta and Ronaldo Salonga of conspiring with one another for their mutual aid and benefit with deliberate intent to defraud Philcomsat the amount of P874 million. Divina said the accused constituted themselves in an Executive Committee and passed a resolution authorizing Nieto Jr. to enter into an illegal memorandum of agreement (MOA) with ANSEAR Realty and Development Corp. and Antonio Araneta, who happens to be the cousin of accused Benito Araneta and nephew of accused Nieto Jr.

Last month, however, amid the growing stress and animosity of the two contending parties, the Nieto Jr. group formed a new board of directors with newcomer Enrique Locsin, an appointee of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) taking over the divided telecommunications company. The Nieto-led Philcomsat Board (different from the Carmelo Africa controlled board) installed Locsin, the brother of Makati Representative Teodoro Locsin as the new chairman, replacing Ronaldo Salonga. Three other PCGG nominees were accepted into the board: Julio Jalandoni, Edgardo Villanueva and Benito Araneta.

This was strongly contested by the Africa-led group, which claimed that it was an illegal board since both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court have ruled that the Nieto group held a disturbing election in 1998.

Divina said the recent negative turn of events at Philcomsat will never reach a point for the firm to rehabilitate and vowed to contest the assumption of Nieto’s group to take over the ailing telecoms company. This was manifested in the election of Locsin as new chairman which was off to a wobbly start. Locsin said he was allegedly prevented from entering the chairman’s office at the Philcomsat headquarters in Makati currently occupied by Africa.