Ongpin’s ‘trusted’ employee

What lies at the root of the complaint for alleged illegal detention which businessman Roberto Ongpin finds himself in nowadays?

Well, apparently, it’s money. Literally, money. Piles upon piles of money, in fact.

Biz Buzz learned that the problem of Ongpin with his former Philweb Corp. employee, Eduveges Batalan, started when the bank accounts of the former Marcos trade minister were frozen by regulators as a result of the complaint filed against him for the Development Bank of the Philippines case (those charges have been dismissed, of course).

Right after authorities froze his funds as Christmas 2012 approached, Ongpin’s companies—wary of having their bank accounts frozen, too—withdrew all their cash and stashed them in a big room in the businessman’s Alphaland Southgate Tower office.

It was from this cash hoard (millions upon millions, we’re told) that the resources needed to run Ongpin’s mini conglomerate were sourced. All the money used for the group’s operations came from the pile in this one room, said our source, who explained that the freeze order of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) had basically put the entire group on “emergency mode” as far as finances were concerned.

“This was an emergency, and as you can imagine, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of funds in a situation like that,” the source explained.

Sooner or later, however, someone decided to do a full audit of the funds when the dust started to settle. Enter Batalan, who was one of Ongpin’s officials who had access to that room and the cash.

After an internal inquiry, Ongpin’s suspicion fell on his trusted employee. Batalan was eventually sued for qualified theft last February and fired. A notice of termination was also published by Ongpin’s firm in a newspaper.

Of course, the question now is … is Batalan’s claim of illegal detention (supposedly done to extract a confession from him) true or not? Abangan. Daxim L. Lucas

Exasperated

While San Miguel Corp. president Ramon S. Ang or “RSA” is mulling over his next corporate acquisitions, definitely included in his grocery list is a bigger stock of adhesive tapes and staplers.

RSA expressed annoyance at what he describes as “crab mentality” in corporate Philippines in the ongoing bidding for the Cavite-Laguna Expressway. He told reporters that SMC (which had won the Naia Expressway project with a very aggressive bid) would next time buy a lot of adhesive tapes and staplers to use in sealing its bid package so that rivals won’t have anything to fret about.

He added that ANZ bank could properly clarify what rivals cite as alleged deficiency in the bid bond for the tollroad, noting that the bid bulletin of the Department of Public Works and Highways gives room for clarifying contentious items.

Asked whether SMC would consider going to court if ever it would be disqualified given its belief that what was raised was a non-issue, RSA said he would be “open” to suggestions.

If government would like to maximize what it could get from any bidding, RSA said the goal would be to allow everybody to compete in a level playing field instead of obsessing over the littlest technical issues. Doris C. Dumlao

Eased out of UCPB bidding

SMC, which owns Bank of Commerce, wants to join the bidding for sequestered shares of United Coconut Planters Bank but has been barred from doing so.

RSA said the bidding for UCPB had been restricted to banks of a certain minimum size. This, in turn, is seen favoring the bigger players instead of encouraging consolidation among mid-sized players.

It’s not surprising that RSA is frustrated in being eased out of the UCPB bidding given the bank’s history and sentimental value to his mentor. SMC chair Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco once controlled UCPB, which was instrumental in the latter’s entry as the controlling stockholder of SMC.

Cojuangco, incidentally, could not attend yesterday’s SMC stockholders’ meeting because he’s still recuperating from a kidney transplant last December.

But RSA assured stockholders who were looking for the chair that he was now in good shape.

Going back to Bank of Commerce, RSA said SMC’s banking arm would participate in mergers and acquisitions, whether as a seller or a buyer. Doris C. Dumlao

The $10-B airport

Perhaps learning from its bitter experience with the Laiban bulk water project (which it proposed years ago, but vehemently challenged), RSA has ruled out submitting the $10-billion airport project—which he had proposed to build on a reclamation project started by Cyber Bay along Manila Bay—as an “unsolicited” proposal.

Instead, he said the proposal was submitted for the government to bid out the project for everyone to participate in. RSA believes that if the $10-billion airport project were to be submitted as an unsolicited proposal, it would attract more detractors.

“They will say we have an advantage because you have long studied this proposal,” he said.

At the end of the day, RSA said the stakeholders—especially the people who are thirsting for a better airport than the gateway currently available in Metro Manila—should have a say in this.

Asked about transportation authorities’ perceived bias to develop Clark as the new international gateway instead of considering any new location, RSA’s view is: May the best proposal win. Doris C. Dumlao

Asiamoney’s best

Hong Kong-based business and finance publication Asiamoney has named BDO Unibank Inc. the best managed company in the Philippines in its 25th anniversary special edition that features Asia’s list of “Best of the Best Managed Companies.”

For this recognition, BDO joins other prominent organizations that were adjudged based on performance, achievements and financial fundamentals. The barometer used by Asiamoney indicates that the bank has been a consistent performer over the years.

Meanwhile, BDO’s investment banking subsidiary BDO Capital and Investment Corp. was earlier cited as best domestic debt house for winning the award five times in a row.

BDO is, of course, ranked as the largest bank in the Philippines in terms of total assets, loans, deposits, capital and trust funds under management.

In 2013, BDO won the coveted Best Asian Bank award from FinanceAsia, a first ever win for a Philippine bank. Daxim L. Lucas

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