Escalation clues
September 27, 2006
Escalation clues. Check it out:(Philippine Daily Inquirer Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) WAS IT GOOD OR WAS IT BAD FOR THE SENate?
I refer to all that fuss in the hallowed chamber, featuring the headline-grabbing arrest warrants for PCGG officials, for example.
The Senate issued them in connection with its inquirywell, in aid of legislation, of courseinto the internal affairs of the sequestered Philcomsat group.
The group only happened to be holding its 20th year of wacky boardroom intramural among the belligerent stockholders.
In effect, one group of stockholders was accusing another group of misuse of corporate funds, with one court case after another flying all over the place.
Leading the attack were Victor Africa and Erlinda Ilusorio-Bildner, whose group took over two corporations called POTC and Philcomsat about six years ago.
On the defensive side was supposedly the camp of government nominees in the board of another company called Philcomsat Holdings Corp. or PHC.
For whatever reason, the Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprise, headed by Sen. Richard Gordon, saw it fit to look into the matter.
According to media reports, the Senate inquiry in aid of legislation has escalated to a constitutional crisis: Who between the executive and the legislative will blink?
To think, as proof of the misuse of funds, the senators initially hinged their call for an investigation on cars that the company allegedly bought for board members.
Its not as if the Senate thinks that if it fails to investigate corporations that buy cars for its officers and directors, the world will end the next day.
But all government outfits buy cars, okay! Jet planes, agreed, are something else. Dont you think, bossing, we have many other problems in this country?
Down here in my barangay, the guys could not just accept the car issue as the be-all-and-end-all of the investigation, and there could only be something else.
Taking a high profile in the Senate investigation was Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile or JPE, who already threatened PCGG officials with libel cases for saying that he had vested interests in the Philcomsat group.
JPE insisted that the stake of his daughter, Katrina, in the Philicomsat group had nothing to do with his fight to end corruption in Philcomsat.
I guess I can live with JPEs explanation, although I dont think that it sits well with the other guys down here in my barangay, simply because JPEin factis an original incorporator of the business group under the Marcos dictatorship.
Todays holdings of Katrina Ponce Enrile, who now heads the Jaka conglomerate of the Enrile family, are the same holdings of JPE during martial rule.
Precisely because of such an irregular situation, which in my book is an obvious conflict of interest, JPE volunteered to inhibit himself from the Senate investigation.
Yet the good senator could not keep his word, as he virtually took over from Senate committee chair Gordon the questioning of the witness in a recent hearing.
As a clue to further escalation of the word war, word goes around that certain board directors are filing a complaint against JPE before the Senate ethics committee.
In other words, this whole mess is not about to end. It so happens that the Senate is only the highest policy-making body in this country with millions of problems.
To think, several cases between the warring stockholders have been filed in the Court of Appeals and the Sandiganbayan, and even the Supreme Court.
And so the Senate hearings will go on duplicating the court hearings on the ongoing cases involving, precisely, the same Philcomsat group.
How pleasing is that to the public, considering that not a few of the guys down here in my barangay already think of the Senate as an expensive circus?
***
RECENTLY, the BCDA held a public bidding for some 1.2 hectares of prime land, which was nicknamed Big Delta, at the fast-developing high-end area in Metro Manila called the Fort.
As such, you would think that real estate companies would fall over each other, rushing to bid for such a sure-hit property at the Fort. Think again!
Word has it that, out of the 11 top real estate companies that bought the terms of reference for the bidding, the BCDA got a total of zero bids.
For that kind of property, nobody is biting, even at a time when real estate is said to be moving up?
Whats more, the BCDA public information office brushed the whole thing away as nothing to do with the raging issue on this cute administrations use of military troops to take over the seaport at Poro Point from the private contractor.
If that was true, how come the BCDA was trying to set up a P6.5-million PR campaign?
Reports had it that BCDA was trying to convince the Palace that the commando-like raid would have little impact on investor confidence.
Sure, except that one German group already postponed its investments, pointing at the Poro Point incident as the cause.
For what was the message of the Poro Point story to business in general?
Well, under this cute administration, if the government wants to take your business, whether you like it or not, the government will just send the troops, period.
***
LAST WEEK, the DepEd launched a new version of the adopt a school program.
The new program basically offers packages to the private sectori.e. the various foundations of those tycoonsin such area of education as infrastructure, teacher training, support to students, computer learning, and health.
In other words, instead of the business people having to rock their brains to come up with projects for the school system, the DepEd now has a menu from which the donors can choose.
It is much more simple for the donors. You knowless work for an equal savings in tax payments!
Copyright 2006 Philippine Daily Inquirer. Source : Financial Times Information Limited (Trademark)
Related Tags: philcomsat group, senate, Senate, group, think, philcomsat
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