September 6, 2010

GLOBE ASIATIQUE mus t be the shortest-lived client that the ex-law firm of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Marcos Ochoa Serapio Tan, has had so far.

Most founding partner Louise Araneta-Marcos said she only met Globe Asiatique president and chief executive Delfin Lee when he and his daughter visited the Ortigas office on Aug. 24.

“There was never a formal or written engagement of our firm’s services vis-a-vis Globe Asiatique and/or Mr. Delfin Lee—in fact the letter (to Globe Asiatique creditor Philippine National Bank, seeking clarification to the alleged default) was sent as an accommodation for a mutual friend who was responsible for the said introduction,’ Marcos wrote Cocktales, in reaction to the Sept. 1 column.

The law firm met Lee again last Thursday to inform Lee that, on account of Marcos’ husband, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., being the chairman of the Senate urban planning committee, the firm could regrettably not take him or his real estate company as client so as to forestall any potential conflict of interest.

According to the grapevine, Lee and Globe Asiatique are now being represented by Philip Sigrid Fortun, the same counsel of the Ampatuan clan.

PNB, on the other hand, is being represented in the litigation by Villaraza Cruz Marcelo & Angangco.

September 6, 2010

Two incredulous Bangko Sentral officials who asked not to be identified by name denied the claim of Banco Filipino vice chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr. that the central bank had exempted the troubled thrift bank from submitting annual financial statements and other regulatory reports.

Yasay, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman who ran for vice president under Brother Eddie Villanueva on a good governance platform, made the bold assertion during a recent testimony before Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Pimentel.

Yasay also claimed the same reportorial exemption was extended to Banco Filipino by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

September 3, 2010

TAIPAN Lucio Tan and hotel magnate William Gatchalian are in the thick of a legal battle over the control of Plastic City, the 84-hectare, 44-warehouse compound in Valenzuela that used to be the largest integrated plastic manufacturing complex in the country.

Gatchalian, whose son Sherwin is the mayor and another son Rexlon is one of the two congressmen of Valenzuela, has so far managed to stall the efforts of the Tan-owned Philippine National Bank to foreclose Plastic City.

Judge Nancy Palmones of Valenzuela Regional Trial Court Branch 172—wife of radio broadcaster Angelo Palmones—has issued a writ of preliminary injunction restraining PNB from taking over the compound.

But PNB has more luck in Manila.

Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of Manila RTC Branch 32 denied Gatchalian’s prayer for injunctive relief, thus paving the way for PNB to foreclose on a 1,808-square-meter vacant property at the corner of M.H. del Pilar and A. Mabini streets and Quirino Avenue.

By PNB’s account, the Plastic City group of companies have racked up over P600 million of bad debts as of end-2009; Gatchalian and his 10 related companies obtained the real estate mortage before the Asian currency crisis over a decade ago.

The crisis, and the subsequent trade liberalization, felled the plastics operation; the emptied factories and warehouses within the compound were later leased out to third parties.

Gatchalian, whose airline Air Philippines had also been taken over by Tan, has so far also managed to dodge PNB from taking over his two Waterfront hotels in Cebu, thanks to timely credit lines from Philippine Business Bank of Zest Airways owner Alfredo Yao—not taipan George Ty as earlier reported in this column—and from Puregold’s Lucio Co.

September 3, 2010

Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Benjamin Pimentel does not normally get upset in the courtroom, but last Tuesday, the phlegmatic judge was finally ticked off when five accused Indian-Filipinos again failed to show up for their court date.

The occasion was supposed to have been the withdrawal of a criminal complaint filed by the Social Security System against Ashok and Sunil Karamchandani, Narain Ladharan, Dayal Lalwani and Mohan Dargani for non-remittance of SSS contributions of their workers.

It was not the first time that the five accused were absent from the hearing, prompting Pimentel to wonder aloud if the five “Indians” were not abusing Philippine hospitality, aside from breaking SSS laws.

Pimentel gave the five accused 48 hours to explain their absence, or face contempt charge.

Little is publicly known of the five, except for Sunil Karamchandani, who is known as the owner of Gamestop stores in Park Square and Trinoma, in addition to being a poker champion among the local Sindhi community.

September 1, 2010

GLOBE Asiatique has yet to start bookbuilding on Friday for its initial public offering, but already the aggressive real estate company has suffered a stunning setback that threatens to sink its capital-raising exercise.

The Pasay City Regional Trial Court on Friday issued a writ of preliminary attachment on Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings, president Delfin Lee, his son and chief financial officer Dexter Lee and a related real estate developer, based on a P1-billion fraud complaint filed by creditor Philippine National Bank.

PNB had lent nearly P1.4 billion to the lowcost developer since 2005, funding the real estate developments of the company which, in turn, used the homebuyers’ contracts to sell and related receivables as collateral for the facility.

The Lucio Tan bank said it was forced to declare Globe Asiatique in default after it discovered that at least 111 supposedly housing buyers were either non-existent or outright fraudulent.

“In falsely representing that (they have) valid and subsisting contracts to sell, defendants (Globe Asiatique and the Lees) evidently had no intention to pay for their loan obligations,” PNB told Pasay RTC Judge Pedro de Leon Gutierrez.

To placate PNB, Globe Asiatique proposed to apply its outstanding loan availments amounting to P151 million from contingent loan proceeds it hoped to receive from another subdivision project, a proposal that the PNB found inadequate.

Two months ago, Pag-IBIG Fund also announced that it had discovered 400 fraudulent housing loan applications in Globe Asiatique’s Xevera subdivision project in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

Those fraudulent loan applications, in turn, triggered the release of P300 million of Pag-IBIG money to Globe Asiatique.

Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee admitted the irregular housing loan applications, but insisted the company had already canceled the contracts and promised to make restitution to the government funding agency.

To defend itself from the PNB lawsuit, Lee also hired Marcos Ochoa Serapio & Tan, the former law firm of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.

Globe Asiatique hoped to raise anywhere from P806 million to P1.24 billion for its listing, P300 million of which it planned to settle shortterm promissory notes it had obtained from the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. for working capital.

RCBC earlier this year also agreed to extend a P2.5-billion loan to finance Globe Asiatique’s condominium venture, the GA Sky Suites in Quezon City. In return, Globe Asiatique awarded the P780-million construction contract for GA Sky Suites to RCBC’s sister company, EEI Corp.

The younger, Ateneo-educated Lee had also hoped to cash out, depending on the final share price, anywhere from P220 million to P340 million, from the secondary offering component of the IPO.

That multi-million windfall, part of the younger Lee’s inheritance, may now have been jeopardized as well.

August 30, 2010

ADD reboundable among the traits of GMA publicist Dante Ang.

Ang has just been contracted as a communications consultant by the new bosses of the cash-cow Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, with no less than chairman Margie Juico vouching for him.

“I knew him when I was still single as he was and is a friend of the family,” Juico said of Ang. “And I trust him.”

Juico, who was one of the closest aides of the late President Corazon Aquino and now of P.Noy, said Ang presented a communications plan to the PCSO board that slashed the agency’s budget by P100 million a year.

The plan was approved and so was Ang’s consultancy.

What is not generally known is that, instead of supporting Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s candidate Gilbert Teodoro, Ang helped in the P.Noy campaign after having cut off his ties with his political patron with a year left in her Malacañang tenure.

In any case, Ang is in good company.

Another PR consultant, Danilo Gozo, who served as the longest Pagcor director—seven years—under the GMA administration, is set to be appointed, knock on wood, as director of the Government Service Insurance System.

Like Ang, Gozo resigned from the gaming agency a year before GMA’s term ended; he was immediately drafted by Mar Roxas for his media team.

Gozo’s other card: he served as deputy press secretary under the Aquino 1 administration.

August 30, 2010

Those who bought Japan-made SUVs from January to July 2010 should be entitled to a duty-free windfall because of the free-trade treaty that kicked in this year, according to the Board of Investments.

To a buyer of a Mitsubishi Pajero, that translates into about P700,000 rebate.

Strangely, the Bureau of Customs is opposing the policy-making Board of Investments in its interpretation of the implementing rules of the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement.

According to the grapevine, Angelito Alvarez, the revenue-strapped new customs commissioner, is supporting his staff recommendation that the effectivity of the Jpepa rules only became effective starting August 2010, after their enactment and publication.

August 25, 2010

DISMISSED Citibank Binondo private banking officer Francis Bryan Ang flew to Hong Kong on the afternoon of July 30, a Friday, and returned to Manila two days later, a Sunday.

It was not clear why the banker made a quick trip to the regional financial center while his career was imploding amid criminal and civil charges being filed by Citibank on what appears now to be a parallel Ponzi scheme perpetrated among the clueless multimillionaire clients of its Binondo branch.

Manila Councilor Bernie Ang, Ang’s father, spoke briefly to reporters Monday, but only to clarify that his 36-year-old son was “not guilty [and] not in hiding.”

Francis Bryan, a resident of Princeton St., Wack Wack Village, will come out at the proper time, “a powder keg ready to explode,” the father said.

The father maintained that it was Francis Bryan, a Xavier alumnus, who had actually tipped off his bank superiors about certain “anomalies” in the Binondo branch and that his son had even threatened to expose the same to the media.

In the meantime, the son was erasing whatever leads and connections the press could connect with him.

His TeamBryan Web page, detailing his unsuccessful bid last year for the presidency of the Alumni Association of Xavier School, was taken down last week and all references to his team, along with running mate, retired San Miguel executive Ramon Lapez Jr., removed from the Internet.

Banco Filipino had to issue a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange to deny that its vice chairman, former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr., ever said that the Bangko Sentral had granted permission to the suspended thrift bank from filing the annual financial reports.

“Our reason for not being able to file…is mainly due to the fact that our financial statements from 2002 to 2008 are yet to be completed by our external auditor,” said assistant bank manager Avelino Saba Jr., adding that the troubled bank’s business plan that had been approved by the Bangko Sentral “is yet (sic) for implementation.”

“Mr. Agustin must have misquoted the source,” Saba wrote PSE disclosure head Janet Encarnacion, in reaction to the Aug. 13 Cocktales item.

Actually, the source was none other than Yasay himself, volunteering that information on the witness stand before Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Benjamin Pimentel, who is trying the P3-billion libel suit filed by Banco Filipino against yours truly.

Yasay even added that he signed no contract or any appointment paper whatsoever—this he said also on oath—when he accepted an offer to become a Banco Filipino consultant starting in 2002.

Before that particular hearing, Yasay and fellow Banco Filipino lawyer, former Human Rights Commissioner Abelardo Aportadera, were doubling in laughter inside the courtroom listening to another Banco Filipino counsel, Tirso Gavero, detailing the alleged sexual proclivities of late Marcos Minister Manuel “Manda” Elizalde Jr.

But details of that talk are so tasteless for Cocktales to repeat them in rint.

Former Bataan Representative Felicito Payumo clarified that although his name was included in the witness list for the Terminal 3 arbitration proceedings, he never went to Singapore at all.

Payumo said only his written testimony was obtained for the Singapore hearings, he being the principal author of the Build Operate Transfer Law upon which the original Terminal 3 contract was based.

“I was careful to emphasize that the B-O-T Law did not give direct government guarantee to the loan of the project proponent [Piatco],” Payumo said.

In addition to developing a number of real estate projects and a mountainous resort in Bataan, Payumo is also the chairman of the University of Nueva Caceres in Naga, which is owned by his in-laws.