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THE
government wants to break the stalemate at the boardroom
of the Philippine Bank of Communications, where it has
helped support the continued viability of the bank by
infusing P7.6 billion, while getting only headaches for
its trouble.
Michael
Osmeña, president of the Philippine Deposit Insurance
Corp., has started the process by insisting that the
Nubla Group, the other half of the tandem at loggerheads
with the Luy Group for board control, cancel the pledge
it made on some 36.19 million PBCom shares to Philtrust
Bank.
The
Nublas have allied with the Cheng family against the
Luys and their board decisions have tested the patience
of PDIC chief Osmeña, who fears for the insurer’s
P7.6-billion cash infusion.
Osmeña
demanded, in a letter to Ralph Nubla Jr., that the
pledge the Nubla Group made to Philtrust Bank covering
36,194,406 PBCom shares be canceled immediately “and
that we be furnished immediately a copy of the documents
that would sufficiently evidence the same.”
Osmeña
wrote the demand letter on July 5, 2007, as the PDIC has
been left without adequate representation at the board
level.
The
Nubla and Cheng Groups have arrayed seven nominees
against the seven appointed by the Luy Group, the four
PDIC nominees having been effectively sidelined earlier
by the warring shareholders.
Osmeña
told the Nublas the “voluntary or involuntary
constitution of any lien, encumbrance of security
interest on any of the shares comprising the controlling
interest constitutes a serious violation of the
Financial Assistance Agreement.”
The
pledging of PBCom shares originated from the relative
inability of the Nubla and Cheng Group to raise enough
money on their own to steer the bank out of trouble and
found support from Chinese-Filipino tycoon Lucio Tan,
who extended them a P1-billion loan.
The
Nublas and Chengs later took P1 billion, secured by
pledging the 36.19 million PBCom shares, from banker and
newspaper owner Emilio Yap of Philtrust Bank to pay off
Tan.
Sources
said the independent director at PBCom, Guillermo
Hernandez, quit his post even though Finance Secretary
Margarito Teves tried to prevail on him to stay.
Some
have blamed Teves for the loss of four independent
directors just two days before the board meeting where
the Nubla and Cheng Groups nominated seven and the Luy
came up with seven nominees of their own.
The lack
of independent directors at the bank has been blamed for
the stalemate.
Some
have urged Osmeña to simply take over PBCom and sell the
bank at auction to recover the government’s cash
infusion of P7.6 billion. |
