Aquino, aides divert P1B from P4.2B escrowed funds Written by Paul Atienza Friday, 21 June 2013 08:00 font size Print 7 comments While the Filipino nation was all hyped due to the election campaign, President Aquino’s top aides, evidently with presidential knowledge and approval, had engineered a move diverting an aggregate amount of P1 billion from the P4.2 billion from escrowed funds, without any impediment involving the controversial Stradcom Corp. Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Transportation Secretary Emilio Joseph Abaya, Assistant Secretary-Land Transportation Office chief Virginia Torres, DoTC Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Jose Perpetuo M. Lotilla, Land Bank of the Philippines president Gilda E. Pico have reportedly conspired to withdraw from the Land Bank vault the P1 billion which has been declared by the Trial Court of Quezon City to be placed under escrow proceedings. The Tribune source said that attempts had been right at the door of Land Bank to withdraw the remaining P3.2 billion but Torres and the government counsels from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in Makati City had refused to agree on the “master plan” of the President’s men. “They (Torres and OSG lawyers) refused to go with the plan because they could not find reasons to justify the move without a proper court order,” the Tribune source said No one among the spokesmen of Aquino had ever mentioned that an amount of P1 billion was ordered withdrawn from the government bank from which the government had benefitted by having collected its tax with a proper receipt. On Nov. 21, 2013, Abaya issued a two-page memorandum for President Aquino through Ochoa on the subject of Stradcom. “1. This is to seek approval to release the amount of P1 billion as payment for the following amounts from Stradcom: 1. P 317 M- BIR; b. P 183 — working capital and other trade payables; and c. P 500 M – banks/creditors for overdue account. “2. The DoTC has been up to date with its payments to Stradcom but is paying the same to an escrow account. Accordingly, Stradcom has no access to the monies unless with the consent of the government. “3. To date, the total amount held in escrow is appropriately P4.2 B as of Oct. 30, 2012. Stradcom is being appropriately charged with the following payables in millions: unpaid loans-238.50; unpaid installments to investors/ creditors-436.25; updating the sinking fund account with Metrobank-1,376.87; business tax-12.00; tax due-April 2012-317.40; Trade payables-67.39; retirement funds payables-107.90; working capital-330; government share in connectivity fees-253.52; “ I am respectfully recommending the payment only of a portion thereof as follows: a. Full payment of the amount to the BIR; b. Substantial payment of the trade payables and working capital (in order for the Stradcom to be able to continue its operations); and c. Partial payment to the creditors (which will be shared by the creditors pro rata based on their outstanding exposure to the company). Abaya added that,”From the escrow account, the monies will be directly released to the proper recipients thereof. “Thus, taxes due to the BIR, shall be directly released to the BIR. Amounts due to the trade suppliers and creditors shall likewise be released directly to them. Abaya highlighted in his memorandum to Aquino through Ochoa that there would be no legal provisions which could impede their desire to have the release of the P 1 Billion from the Land Bank. “While the escrow account was previously under litigation and a restraining order issued by the court, the case has since been dismissed. “The case is now pending with the Court of Appeals but is not the subject of any restraining order. “Therefore, no judicial intervention or notice is necessary for the release of these monies,” Abaya said in his memorandum. In the 1-page memorandum issued Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa dated Dec. 21, 2012 to Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya , it was itemized how the aggregate amount of P1 billion would have to be divided in payments. Ochoa, in signing his memo to Abaya said that,“In connection with the 2 November 2012 DoTC Memorandum to the President, please be informed that the request to release the amount of Php1 Billion the escrow account under the Escrow Agreement among the Land Transportation Office, Stradcom, and the Land Bank of the Philippines, as payment for certain amounts due from Stradcom, has been approved. “As represented by DoTC, the P1 Billion payment shall consist of (a) P317 Million to the Bureau of Internal Revenue; (b) P183 Million for working capital and other payables; and (c) P500 Million to bank/credits for overdue amounts with interest, and will be released directly to the proper recipients. “For information and appropriate action.” Ochoa’s memorandum was received by Abaya’s office on Dec. 27, 2012. Then Abaya, for his part, issued his 1-page memorandum to Virginia Torres, assistant secretary, chief of LTO dated Jan. 8, 2013 with barcode DoTC OSEC OUTGOING 13-00002 that also copy furnished Alfonso Tan, executive director LTO main office in East Avenue, Quezon City and Cesar Quiambao of Stradcom Corp., of System Management Center Building, LTO Main Compound, East avenue, Quezon City. “In view of the approval of Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa, Jr. to release the amount of One Billion Pesos (P1 from the escrow account under the Escrow Agreement among the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), and Stradcom Corp., you are hereby enjoined to immediately effect payment of the following obligations to Stradcom: 1. Three Hundred Seventeen Million Pesos (P317M) to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR); 2. One Hundred Eighty Three Million Pesos (P183M) for working capital and other trade payables (in order for Stradcomto be able to continue its operations); and Five Hundred Million Pesos (P500M) to bank/creditors of Stradcom for overdue accounts and interests payments. “For immediate compliance.” Abaya’s memorandum to Torres was being received on Jan. 10, 2013. On Jan. 18, 2013, Jose Perpetuo M. Lotilla, Undersecretary for Legal Affairs, sent a one page memorandum to Torres which was received on Jan. 23, 2013 at the Records and Correspondence of LTO. “Pursuant to the Memorandum from the Secretary, the Honorable Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya issued to you on 08 January 2013, please instruct the Escrow Agent under the Escrow Agreement dated December 06, 2011 (ITF 03-466) among Land Transportation Office, Land Bank of the Philippines-Trust Banking Group and Stradcom corporation to debit the amount of One Billion pesos (P1,000,000,000.00) and credit it to Stradcom Account No. 0572-1038-03,” Lotilla ordered Torres. On April 18, 2011, Bonifacio C. Sumbilla, president and chief executive officer of Stradcom, had sent a formal letter to Gilda E. Pico, president and chief executive office of the Land Bank of the Philippines in 1598 M.H. del Pilar, Malate, Manila to remind the government bank that there was still a pending case of interpleader in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. Sumbillo’s letter had its head subject,”The amounts on deposit with you as escrow agent in relation to the claim of the two contending in Stradcom corporation.” “Please be advised that there is a pending Interpleader before the Regional Trial Court Branch 95 of Quezon City, entitled:Republic of the Philippines, through the Land Transportation Office represented by Assistant Secretary Virginia Torres versus Stradcom Corporation (as represented by Cezar T. Quiambao, et al., and as represented by Bonifacio Sumbilla, et al.) “The Interleader was filed precisely to determine who between the contending groups within Stradcom Corporation is the rightful recipient of the amounts in escrow,” Sumbilla said. Sumbilla had told to the Land Bank President Pico that,” We understand the dilemma you now face, given the succession of directives emanating from the DoTC and the new leadership (as officer- in- charge) in the LTO. “We, therefore, advice you not to release the amounts now in escrow, until the Interpleader is resolved,” Sumbilla said. Sumbilla had also notified, by sending copies respectively, to Finance SecretaryCesar Purisima, as Land Bank chairman of the board of directors, as well as to the LBP sitting directors Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio De Los Reyes, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, Crispin Aguelo, Domingo Diaz, Tomas de Leon Jr., and Victor Gerardo Bulatao. The legal tussle began on Feb. 10, 2011, when Torres as the acting chief of the LTO had opted to bring to the Quezon City Trial Court a case of interpleader with docket as Special Civil Action No. Q-11-68723, against the warring Sumbilla and Quiambao groups who were both asserting claims to be the rightful shareholders, directors and officers of Stradcom. Then the Quiambao group filed before the RTC Branch 222 of the Quezon City a motion to dismiss the Interpleader by Sumbilla. On June 21, 2011, Judge Edgar Dalmacio Santos, of Branch 222, denied the motion to dismiss by Quiambao. Judge Santos had instead directed warring groups of Quiambao and Sumbilla to interplead with each other and file their respective answers. Santos then also issued order the the LTO “to deposit to the court the subject current amount of its contractual obligations to Stradcom Corporation”. Quiambao then filed a certiorari and prohibition directly before the Supreme Court to nullify the order of Judge Santos and the dismissal of the Interpleader case. On august 23, 2011, the Supreme Court , in en banc resolution, had resolved to uphold the propriety of the Interpleader case filed before the sala of Judge Santos in Quezon City. Published in Headlines
Posted on: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 09:12:37 +0000
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