SEC revokes papers of 8 Estrada firms

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revoked the registration papers of eight corporations of jailed former President Joseph Estrada for failure to submit the required annual reports to the regulatory body.

This was revealed yesterday by Annette Peralta Tamayo, an employee of the SEC’s filing and records section and the 54th witness of the prosecution in the plunder and perjury cases against Estrada.

Tamayo also disclosed that the SEC is set to conduct a hearing on whether to similarly revoke the registration papers of a ninth corporation, ADE Food Inc., where Estrada and his wife, Sen. Luisa "Loi" Ejercito, have subscribed capital of P42,500 and paid-up capital of P17,000 each.

She identified the eight other corporations as the following: FELT Food Services Inc., Primetime Entertainment for Television Production Inc., Alpha Funds Inc., 24-K International Food Inc., First LPL Land Syndication Corp., Asis-Ejercito Garments Inc., All Hot Soup Inc. and Electronic Sentry System Inc.

Tamayo said Benito Cataran, director of the SEC’s registration and monitoring division, ordered the revocation of the registration of the eight companies only last Nov. 11.

She said all nine corporations were still existing as of December 1998.

Assistant Ombudsman Dennis Villa-Ignacio said Estrada did not mention the nine companies in his statement of assets and liabilities for the year 1998.

He said Estrada might have cheated the government in taxes by reflecting small subscribed capital and paid-up capital in these companies.