THE infrastructure arm of San Miguel Corp. has sought for the nonbailable arrest against Indonesian businessman Shadik Wahono for qualified theft for the unauthorized disbursement of Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp. (CMMTC) funds.
In a statement, San Miguel Holdings Corp. (SMHC) said this plea before a Marikina City court comes after the judge handling the initial case inhibited herself, citing bias and conflict of interest.
Under the complaint, SMHC alleged Wahono of using the P50- million fund to incorporate another company called Citra Central Expressway Corp. (CCEC).
The Filipino company said the transfer of money was listed as a “loan” from CMMTC to Wahono’s PT Citra Lamtoro Gung Persad (CLGP), for the incorporation of CCEC.
Wahono subsequently entered into a separate partnership with SMHC for CCEC, to undertake the Skyway Stage 3 project. However, SMHC said it did not know Wahono got the money from CMMTC to fund the establishment of CCEC.
The complaint noted Wahono and his coaccused did not notify the CMMTC board and shareholders about the alleged loan. They also did not seek board approval for such loan. In fact CMMTC was “expressly barred by its contractual obligations from extending any form of loan.”
Because Wahono and company kept the unauthorized disbursement from them, SMHC was duped into paying Wahono and company the same amount of money it illegally disbursed from CMMTC when SMHC bought into CCEC later on, the infrastructure holdings company said in its complaint.
SMHC filed a separate criminal complaint for syndicated estafa against Wahono and company for misrepresenting that CLGP is the legal owner of CCEC shares acquired by SMHC.
“CLGP cannot be the legal and beneficial owner of such shares since the subscription price was actually paid for by CMMTC funds, of which SMHC was also a beneficial owner at that time,” SMHC said.
Despite earlier findings by the Office of the City Prosecutor of Manila of probable cause to issue an arrest warrant, presiding Judge Alice C. Gutierrez of the Marikina Regional Trial Court Branch 193, ordered to dismiss the resolution of the prosecutor that included information for qualified theft against all of the accused.
Gutierrez said “SMHC cannot claim the amount belongs to it considering there are other stockholders of the corporation and the court finds no probable cause for the issuance of a warrant of arrest for qualified theft on the ground they merely performed corporate acts when they transferred the amount from CMMTC to CCEC.”
SMHC countered, “to excuse the theft committed by the accused just because they, too, are beneficial owners is to say that one partner can rob the other or the majority can steal from the minority”.
SMHC said Gutierrez’s ground for dismissal shows bias and ignorance of the law.
SMHC filed a motion for reconsideration to set aside the order of Gutierrez and issue a warrant of arrest against Wahono and company based on the information submitted by the public prosecutor finding probable cause to indict the accused.
At the same time, SMHC also filed a motion for Judge Gutierrez to inhibit herself from hearing the case and suspend proceedings, including any action on the Motion for Reconsideration, until she rules on the motion to inhibit.
SMHC said there is enough reason to believe Judge Gutierrez may be biased against San Miguel, demonstrating prejudgment and partiality in favor of the accused, when she dismissed outright key information and evidence and ruled there was no prima facie evidence of qualified theft.