February 6, 2008

THE Philippine Stock Exchange has imposed a new set of fines on the Locsin-Poblador group for having repeatedly failed to submit financial reports of the Philcomsat Holdings Corp. to the bourse.

PSE disclosure chief Pete Malabanan said the PHC was being fined a total of P435,000 for the non-submission of the 2006 annual report, as well as for missing three quarterly reports for 2007.

The irony of the monetary penalties is that it is now the new Malacanang nominees headed by Ramon “RJ” Jacinto and retired Justice Santiago Ranada who are being made to shoulder the penalties of the dismissed Malacanang directors led by Locsin, while the group of Free Press publisher Enrique Locsin and PHC “chairman” Concepcion Poblador, aided by friendly Makati judges, continues to hang on to the about P500 million to P800 million in company funds.

Because of the repeated failures of PHC to comply with the reportorial requirements, the stock exchange has had been considering delisting the company, Malabanan said in his letter to Jacinto.

Even with the Malacanang announcement that a new set of government nominees had already been appointed to the PHC, the stock and transfer agent of the company, Emerald Registry and Transfers Corp., still refuses to provide a list of stockholders to the new PHC board.

In a letter dated January 28, 2008, Emerald’s stock operations head Benedicto Tan flatly denied the request of Jacinto for the shareholders list, due, he said, to a competing claim of the Locsin-Poblador group.

Ironically, the Locsin-Poblador certification, signed by “corporate secretary” Alma Kristina Alobba, still lists Manuel Nieto Jr. as their president, despite Nieto already having repudiated Alobba, denying he even knows her. (Alobba also claims, in her January 25, 2008 letter, that Manuel Andal is still company treasurer, despite Andal already having also been replaced by President Arroyo.)

You doubt this Nieto-Alobba tale? Go ahead and ask Nieto counsel Manuel “Lolong” Lazaro.

The former justice can write a book on how a group of “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves” were able to capitalize on an Alzheimer’s-stricken senior citizen to sign financial documents and finagle untold millions of corporate funds.