JOSE COJUANGCO & Sons Inc. (JCSI), which is a closely held company owned by the family of President Aquino, owns 7.856 million shares, or 27.805 percent, in Central Azucarera de Tarlac Inc. (CAT). As the family’s holdings company, it wholly owns—meaning 100-percent ownership in—Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI)

HLI was incorporated to make its farmers co-owners by giving them certificates of shares of stock which the agrarian reform version of the late Corazon C. Aquino has allowed instead of distributing farm lots. Has the stock distribution to the farmers been consummated or completed, JCSI’s ownership would have been diluted to less than 70 percent, or about 33 percent.

Incidentally, the Supreme Court has intervened via a ruling that would allow the farmers to choose between owning shares in a P2-billion deficit company or hold titles to the land they could call their own.

Deficit here refers to losses the hacienda incurred over the years. Simply put, Hacienda Luisita, the company, won’t be able to distribute dividends either in cash or in stock as long as it carries such a huge deficit in its book.

A company is able to give out dividends when it has accumulated net profits which become an entry called retained earnings under its stockholders’ equity. This means as long as the hacienda remains on a deficit, the Cojuangcos and the farmers, who have already received some shares of stock, have no hope of receiving any dividend.

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Speaking of stockholders, Mr. Aquino, the president, and the Catholic Church may not exactly be very friendly with each other. But they own something in common: shares in CAT.  In a filing posted on the website of the Philippine Stock Exchange, CAT listed the president as owner of 301,792 shares, or 1.0682 percent, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila, 44,652 shares, or 0.158 percent. It is not known who are voting the Church-owned shares or whether it has given the proxy to the Cojuangco family, even if its shares are not enough to elect one seat in the board. The President, as a member of the family, would vote and had voted with the Cojuangco nominees. While Aquino is No. 15 in CAT’s list of stockholders, the Manila archbishop is No. 51. As stockholders, it could be safely presumed that these two stockholders vote for the same slate of nominees to the board. After all, the Catholic Church, while owning shares in some listed companies, does not have nominees for director to protect its investments. Instead, it probably gives proxies to the majority owners. For instance, the Manila Archbishop is the third-biggest stockholder of the Bank of Philippine Islands (with 301.064 million shares, or 8.4655 percent, with address care of Carlos B. Aquino, one of the vice presidents of the bank.

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While the Archdiocese of Manila remains a stockholder of CAT, the President has ceased ownership of CAT shares early this year. In a posting, the company said Aquino had “divested all his shares in favor of Manuel E. Dimaculangan as of March 18 but the Securities Transfer Services Inc. was only notified of such divestments on July 14, 2011.” The filing did not provide details how the president has unloaded his holdings. If he had sold these to Dimaculangan, then he would have grossed P3,561,145.60 at P11.80 per share, the price when CAT was last  traded on November 10. And if Dimaculangan is the same person whom Aquino has appointed to some government posts—including being a board member and chief finance officer of the Manila Economic  and Cultural Office—then he would have included the CAT shares in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN). On his part, the President would have paid P7,122.2912 in capital gains tax if this corner’s computation is correct.

Incidentally, Malacañang recently issued a statement regarding the presidential divestment of ownership in Hacienda Luisita. Edwin Lacierda, presidential spokesman, has even been quoted as saying such divestment reduced Aquino’s SALN by 1 percent. Did Lacierda really mean Hacienda Luisita or CAT since the former has yet to issue shares to stockholders who should be the farmers. To have owned a significant number of hacienda shares when Aquino was not among the intended recipients would defeat the purpose of corporate ownership of the hacienda by the farmers. ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )