"x x x..
On Friday, San Miguel Corp. (SMC) redeemed 24 percent of its shares of stock worth nearly P70 million that had been sequestered since the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution for allegedly being part of the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos and his cronies.
The buyback came after the Supreme Court in a decision on Sept. 4, released to reporters two weeks later, dismissed a motion for reconsideration and voted to uphold with finality a ruling on Jan. 24.
Voting 11-0, the court declared that the SMC assets in the name of 14 holding companies set up under the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) and the Oil Mills Group (OMG) were purchased using the coconut levy and are therefore “owned by the government to be used for the benefit of all coconut farmers and for the development of the coconut industry.”
It was the biggest recovery of alleged illegally stashed wealth of Marcos and his cronies, according to the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) that was set up precisely to recover such assets.
In anticipation of the final favorable ruling, the administration set up a presidential task force chaired by the head of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), Joel Rocamora, to prepare a road map for the utilization of the fund.
x x x.
In April last year, the court ruled that a 20-percent block of SMC shares belonged to Cojuangco, dismissing allegations that it was part of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth and claims that the businessman was a Marcos crony.
The ruling also shrugged off claims that as then president of state-owned United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB), Cojuangco had a fiduciary trust over the levy funds deposited in the bank—to protect the money, not gain from it. This block of shares is worth P54.36 billion of common shares (based on P110/share).
A dissenting justice called the ruling “the biggest joke to hit the century.”
Originally representing 27 percent of the SMC stock, the CIIF-OMG shares became a 24-percent block. It was diluted in proportion to the total San Miguel equity when the then food and beverage giant expanded upon the entry of Kirin Brewery of Japan.
The entire sequestered shares of SMC stock had actually reached 51 percent of the conglomerate’s equity, including 4 percent in treasury warrants that the former SMC boss Andres Soriano used as down payment for an attempted buyback in April 1986 of the seized assets. Last year, the PCGG asked the Supreme Court to direct SMC to turn over these treasury warrants worth P15 billion, the Inquirer has learned, but the high tribunal has yet to issue such an order.
x x x."
