AMADO P. MACASAET
MALAYA
‘The only connection between UCPB or Danding Cojuangco with Marcos is that the latter ordered the establishment of a bank for coconut farmers.’
FROM the time the shares of his group in San Miguel Corp. were sequestered 25 years ago, I have argued my voice hoarse trying to explain that the 20 percent stake of Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. cannot be considered as having been acquired with ill-gotten wealth and that the money used belonged to the Coconut Industry Investment Fund.
There are enough records that show that the 26 or so percent of SMC held by the CIIF has an entirely different complexion from the investments of Danding Cojuangco and his group.
The simple fact, as Cojuangco repeatedly told me in my infrequent visits to him while he was in exile in California, is that his group borrowed money from the United Coconut Planters’ Bank to buy the shares.
At that time, and I presume up to now, Cojuangco has been amortizing the loan. In fact, it could be fully paid by now.
The problem is the Presidential Commission on Good Government made it appear that the borrowed money was part of the coconut levy fund. I find this funny because no distinction is ever made on which money is deposited by whom.
Deposits are lumped together and considered as one but, needless to say, the owners are clearly identified. Thus, the deposits of the coconut levy fund belong to that group.
It cannot be sensibly or intelligently argued that UCPB lent the coconut levy money to Cojuangco. It was the bank that lent him the money. Adequately secured, considering the personal wealth of Cojuangco and the extent of his business empire.
But then, and maybe up to this time, the PCGG has never really examined facts of the sequestration cases. Its passion was to prove that the so-called cronies of Ferdinand Marcos, more particularly Eduardo Cojuangco, were all thieves who enriched themselves using influence with the dictator.
The only connection between UCPB or Danding Cojuangco with Marcos is that the latter ordered the establishment of a bank for coconut farmers.
It was Cojuangco who started it by buying First United Bank owned by the family of his uncle the late Don Pepe Cojuangco who was father of former President Corazon Aquino.
The coconut levy has always been attended by confusion often made worse by government people.
It is true that as early as the days of the President Carlos P. Garcia (or was it Diosdado Macapagal?), there was already a law allowing the collection of a levy from every 100 kilos or ton of copra. The money collected from that levy was kept, up to this day, I think, in the Development Bank of the Philippines.
There was a time in the regime of Marcos when the price of cooking oil, extracted from coconut went sky high. In an effort to help the consumers Marcos ordered that a stabilization fund be set up from collections from coconut farmers.
The intent was to use the fund reduce the price of cooking oil. The fund was effectively a subsidy. Sooner than everybody thought the price of coconut products in the world market started to fall. Consequently, prices of cooking oil in the Philippines also drastically dropped.
The stabilization fund became unnecessary. It was abolished, if I remember correctly. But Cojuangco said the need of a huge fund to modernize and industrialize the coconut industry.
He and his group of coconut oil millers and copra exporters contributed to the fund. In that sense, the fund was private. But the PCGG would not share Cojuangco’s view. Part of that fund was used to buy about 26 per cent of San Miguel Corp.
Eduardo Cojuangco’s personal investment of 20 per cent in SMC paid for with money borrowed from the UCPB is often confused or lumped together with the investment of the coco levy in the same SMC.
That is why Cojuangco has always been hard put explaining that the two investments are completely different from one another. One is his personal stake. The other is owned by the CIIF.
In the end the Supreme Court ruled that the 20 percent of Cojuangco in SMC is his own. In fact, he and his group are the registered owners.
The 26 percent owned by the levy has been converted into preferred shares with the authority of the Supreme Court. There is no final resolution on the ownership of these shares . They remain sequestered.
However, the conversion into preferred prevented the PCGG from voting the shares. It can no longer nominate representatives to the board of SMC because the preferred shares are non-voting.
Frankly, I never came within 50 feet of Cojuangco when he was in power. We met in California when I thought I was taking a very long shot trying to see to meet him with the help of his trusted secretary, Helen Soriano.
We first met in his reasonably modest home in Sta. Monica. He was with his high school buddy, Bobby Leonor. I brought with me a tape recorder to record our conversation. It turned that he was as careful as I was.
He told me that our conversation was to be recorded on tape. If any part of the conversation was to be off the record we would both turn off the recorder. There were very few instances when we had to do so. Everything was official.
He had a stiff upper lip, not knowing from anybody. All I tried to do was understand the purpose of continuing with the levy by asking the coconut millers and exporters to contribute to the fund. He said something had to be done about the tree of life as the coconut has always been known.
Out of the levy fund was born the Coconut Chemical Corp. set up in Batangas to produce more than 20 different kinds of chemicals from coconut oil.
The PCGG shut it down by sequestration. Cojuangco also believed was an immediate need for replanting. That is the main reason y he organized a coconut seed bank in Bugsuk Island, off the coast of Palawan.
That seedling bank also completely disappeared out of sheer neglect after it was sequestered.
As it is now, the Philippines is behind Indonesia in producing coconuts. Vietnam is coming in close and may overtake the Philippines.
Minola cooking oil, owned by San Pablo Oil Mills, is one of several mills owned by the CIIF. It is probably the first and only company exporting coconut oil to Canada and the United States.
Given all these and the lack of evidence that Cojuangco and his group lined their pockets thick using influence with the former dictator, we might say that sequestration accomplished two things that may have contributed to slow growth of the economy.
First, the mandate of the PCGG was to prevent the dissipation of the assets. The records show that the opposite is true.
Second, the coconut industry in the Philippines could have grown by leaps and bounds and remain as a top export earner if the levy had been allowed to be used as envisioned by Eduardo Cojuangco.
I have not met with Danding for more than 10 years. The only time I saw him was when his mother died.
He does not call for me. I do not need anything from him at this time as Ramon Ang is practically running his show.
The decision of the Supreme Court awarding to him his 20 percent personal investment in SMC did justice. It took 25 years. Justice grinds slowly in this country. But it does grind, most of the time painfully.
No comments:
Post a Comment