J. Albert Gamboa l August 19, 2022 l The Manila Times
AFTER rallying for seven consecutive days in the middle of the so-called ghost month, the Philippine stock market took a breather to close at 6,818.99 last August 17. This represents an impressive 8-percent increase from the start of the month, due mainly to favorable first-half corporate earnings results for majority of listed companies.
Over the past few months, meanwhile, there has been a spate of hostile takeovers that have gone beyond corporate boardrooms and urban settings. The most dramatic so far was last May 31 at the Okada Manila ballroom in Parañaque City during the stockholders’ meeting of Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc. (TRLEI) which operates the casino resort.
Two factions of the Okada family are currently embroiled in an intra-company dispute over control of TRLEI and its parent firm, Universal Entertainment Corp. One faction composed of the founder’s scions cried foul over the alleged forcible takeover of the biggest integrated resort in Entertainment City Manila, which the father’s faction considers a rightful reinstatement of the true owner. The ouster of the scions-led board was the latest episode in the family’s long-running, cross-border squabble covering the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan.
Another forcible takeover was staged last June 18 in Boracay in Malay, Aklan. Eight armed guards barged inside the Cerca Hotel and forced the staff to immediately vacate the property at gunpoint. According to police officials, this appeared to be a case of hostile takeover involving land and properties, which has become rampant in the world-famous tourist destination.
A more recent incident happened in Calamba City, Laguna last June 27 when an armed takeover of a San Miguel Brewery (SMB) dealership owned by ETY Enterprises took place. In a sworn statement, businessman Edward Tennyson Yao accused his former business partner, Jester Sherwin Ong, and the latter’s lawyer, Jairus Vincent Bernardez, of multiple charges, primarily for leading a group of individuals in storming ETY’s Calamba warehouse and declaring before the workforce that they were enforcing a writ of execution ostensibly issued by a court.
Yao noted that no sheriff or any court representative had accompanied the armed group in enforcing the supposed writ. In the aftermath of the sudden takeover, he claims to have lost about P32 million in cash, SMB products, vehicles and other equipment. Some of his employees alleged that they were illegally detained until midnight and coaxed into signing some documents by the armed group, while Yao himself was denied entry along with his lawyer when they arrived at the dealership premises the following day.
Ironically, Ong’s lawyer belongs to a Makati-based firm whose senior partner serves as the legal counsel of the ousted Okada board. One favors a hostile takeover; the other is against it. In any case, such corporate takeovers marred by hooliganism seem to be trending, symptomatic of the culture of impunity looming over our country nowadays.
*** The author is the chief finance officer of Asian Center for Legal Excellence and chairman of the Finex Media Affairs Committee. The opinion expressed herein does not necessarily reflect the views of these institutions and The Manila Times.