Banco de Mafia
Tsk! Tsk! First, there is an unrest in the government brought about scandals being thrown left and right to the administration. Then, there's the internal strife brewing. Inspite of the "hit" contract, one newspaper released this article...Manila Times - July 15, 2005
Opinion / Editorial
Big Deal by Dan Mariano
Banco de Mafia
In placing ads in several newspapers about their ordeal as leaders of Equitable PCI Bank, the Go family (principally Peter Go Pailan and Antonio Go) finally acknowledged publicly what has been going around in the banking and finance grapevine: there is a hit contract against them in the media.
It is open season for demonizing the Gos, and the family has tagged the mastermind behind their plight: the Sy family of Shoe Mart and Banco deOro.
What great sin have the Gos committed that has brought the wrath of the mighty Sys?
It's simply this: their decision to keep the family legacy, the EquitablePCI Bank, which their father Go Kim Pah founded 55 years ago and bequeathed to his sons and daughters. They had the temerity to say "no" to those who want to take over the bank.
It so happens that the Sys are dead set on buying EPCIB by fair means and foul. Never mind that the people on the other side are another Chinese-Filipino family, whose patriarch even helped Henry Sy and his wife in starting their SM business.
Over the past two weeks, newspaper editors, columnists and reporters have been falling all over themselves to outdo each other in fulfilling the contract. One newspaper publisher has ordered his editorial staff to open its pages to all attacks on the Gos, and not to entertain anything favorable to them, not even a letter replying to the attacks. To make this policy known, he hired a lawyer to write a column that perversely said there's no such thing as "the right of reply in journalism."
Another newspaper has dedicated its business section to a full-scale campaign against the Gos. Two of its business columnists write about nothing but EPCIB and the Go family. Any responses have to be published in another section of the paper, because neither the columnists nor the business editor will print them.
In the case of other papers, columnists and reporters volunteer their services individually, doing their best to earn points for themselves.
Not to be outdone, our trustees in the SSS and GSIS are doing their utmost to be of service to the Sys in their takeover bid on EPCIB.
GSIS president Winston Garcia has volunteered to be the principal mouthpiece in attacking the Gos on everything that the BDO publicists can invent; never mind that he is just about the most ethically-challenged chief executive the GSIS ever had.
SSS president Cora de la Paz commissioned former DENR secretary Fulgencio Factoran as attack dog within the EPCIB board.
In volunteering to lead the planned BDO takeover, Garcia and de la Paz are violating a fundamental investment guideline for our pension funds that has been honored by previous administrations-that they are prohibited from seizing control of the companies they invest in. But [Garcia and de la Paz] probably plan to argue that they are taking over not for the government or their agencies' members, but for the Sys. So, in a sense, there's no violation.
The big flaw in this is that the Sys and Banco de Oro do not have enough shares for even half a board seat in EPCIB. But when were they ever bothered by questions of ethics and delicadeza? Certainly not when they concluded on Rizal Day 2003 that infamous agreement to sell the SSS stakein EPCIB to BDO at fire-sale prices? Or when they concocted a Swiss challenge auction in order to hand over the shares to BDO?
It has never occurred to them that the national pension funds do not belongto the government but to SSS and GSIS members, that their stint at the helm is at best temporary, as fleeting perhaps as the term of the beleaguered President Arroyo, and that their move for a government takeover is taking, and will take, a toll on EPCIB at the stock market and on its profitability.
The disrespect with which the Sys and BDO are treating the Gos and Equitable PCI Bank has never been more apparent than in their decision to challenge in court the anti-competitor provisions in the EPCIB by-laws. For good reason, the by-laws provide for the exclusion from the board of anyone representing or connected with a competitor in the banking business. The Sys first challenged it in the Makati Regional Trial Court, and they lost the case. The other day they brought their challenge to the Court of Appeals, and woe and behold, the CA promptly "TROed" the by-laws provisions. Such is the power of the mighty.
The tactics being employed by Banco de Oro in order to get control of EPCIB remind me of those employed by a Mafia family. (The Sys are making an offer that you can only refuse under pain of being demonized and crushed.) They will brook no resistance. They will use anyone. And they will get their prize come hell or high water.
I am not persuaded, however, that this Mafia style is the only way to do successful business in our country. I think that there is something finer to be said about the Go family's idea about growing a business from generation to generation. I think their record in building EPCIB into the third largest bank in the country deserves the admiration and support of the nation. And I believe they should be commended for their creditable record in leading EPCIB from its crisis of survival four years ago to its present growth and transformation.
The Gos have a point when they reply to the Sys, "Why don't you grow your own bank?" And they have a right to their heritage.
Am not sure, but as I understand it, one of the owners of Inquirer is a relative of Romualdez, who, along with GSIS and SSS, wanted to wrestle control of EPCIB so that their pooled shares can be handed over to BDO.
posted by ~GFA~ @ 7/20/2005 10:31:00 PM
5 Comments:
uhmm,they want to take control of everything siguro,rac
yup... most likely. ;)
hahaha! baka uso ngayong ang "grabbing"...
oh wow, that's interesting.. haven't been reading the news lately.. it's so sad..kaya ala nangyayari sa Pinas kasi lahat talaga may mga kasamaan na ginagawa :( and, that's disappointing since i've an account with BDO ..=(
true... but I guess, there really are individuals who would go to any length just to get their wish or exert their will, even to stepping on other's rights.
thanks for dropping by! c",)
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