Washington SyCip, founder of the auditing and consulting firm of SGV & Co., had tried to convince some 84 partners at SGV to have two managing partners.

His plan could have prevented a rift in the firm among its 84 partners.

Last week, 70 of them decided to elect Cirilo Noel as managing partner to replace David Balangue, who was to be kicked upstairs as chairman.

Inside SGV, the Balangue group of 15 young and veteran partners came to be known as the ?anti? group opposing a takeover by US-based Ernst & Young. The Noel group was the ?pro? group.

As suggested by Wash SyCip, Noel could serve as the co-managing partner in charge of the tax division, and Balangue, as co-managing partner for the audit division.

Technically, Wash SyCip no longer controls SGV, but he can still exert influence over its partners as their inspirational leader.

The setup of co-managing partners was not new to SGV. In its early years in the 1950s, Wash SyCip and Alfredo Velayo (the ?V? in the firm?s acronym) were co-managing partners.

The difference between then and now is that SyCip and Velayo have been friends since grade school, while there is apparently no love lost between the quarreling Balangue and Noel.

Their quarrel seems to be an offshoot of the obvious move of US audit firm Ernst & Young for ?integration? (i.e., takeover) of SGV into the Ernst & Young Asia-Pacific operations.

The reported heavy influence that Ernst & Young exerted over the majority of the SGV partners, still, is a far cry from the SGV of long ago when SyCip was the undisputed leader.

This is the Filipino audit firm that started as a one-man operation. It had to compete with the big boys from the United States which were the dominant audit firms here at that time. To top it all, SGV won over them.

Under SyCip, SGV expanded its operations to other Asian countries, sent teams to Europe and the United States, and even became the recruitment ground of the Philippine government for several technocrats.

Had SyCip still been the managing partner, he would have thrown out of the window any Ernst & Young partner from Hong Kong who would want to impose his will on the SGV partners.

The local lawyers of Ernst & Young, from the Romulo Mabanta law firm, denied that the US firm had anything to do with the SGV partners? meeting last week, in which the Noel group supposedly ousted Balangue.

Sure, boss, and there is also no corruption in this country!

Everybody in SGV knew what the big fuss between the Noel and the Balangue groups was all about: That very same ?integration? desired by Ernst & Young.

No matter the euphemism or legal term, ?integration? means Ernst & Young will be in control of the country?s biggest and most successful auditing firm, which has, for clients, about 65 percent of the top 1,000 corporations.

That?s probably why the Constitution prohibits foreigners from practicing the accountancy profession here.

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Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza has just settled another fight over a mining site. This one is over the iron mines in Bulacan province?s mountain town called Doña Remedios Trinidad.

Operations at the mine have been stopped in the past few years because of a fight for management control of its operator, Oro Development Corp., or Odeco.

The fight threw hundreds of workers out of their jobs.

The fight over Odeco was between the groups of Arturo Mercader and Marcial Soriano.

Atienza declared the group of Mercader the rightful holder of the mining lease contract in the town.

He thus ordered the Mines and Geosciences Bureau to recognize a memorandum of agreement between the Mercader group (as Odeco board members) and Matatag Mining Corp.

Ten years ago the Soriano group, acting as the board of Odeco, entered into an agreement with Ore Asia Mining and Development Corp., owned by the group of James Ong of Jowood Industries and Royal Picanto Mining, to operate the iron mine.

The Mercader group contested the agreement, claiming the Soriano group no longer had authority to represent Odeco in the transaction.

Actually, the Mercader group already had an understanding with Matatag Mining, then owned by Dick Yau, who is a partner of state-owned firms from China.

The case dragged on for years, and in 2003 a trial court declared null and void the Soriano group?s election. Five years later, in 2008, the Court of Appeals upheld that decision.

It seems that Atienza wasted no time in trying to reopen the mines. His office decided on the case in only a few months.

The provincial governor, Joselito Mendoza, knows only too well that the dispute has already displaced hundreds of mine workers.

From what I have heard, Mendoza has nothing but praises for Atienza?s decisiveness. To me, Atienza deserves a medal for his decision, which was made despite ?pressure? from a congresswoman who was ?intervening? in the case.

Representing Odeco, Mercader informed the Central Luzon office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on March 27, 2008 that a new board led by him was organized at an Odeco stockholders? meeting on Dec. 6, 2006.

Soriano, for his part, entered into a partnership with mining subcontractors to extract iron ores at Odeco?s mine site.

The actions of Soriano?s group prompted Mercader to advise the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Region 3 that the Soriano group no longer had authority to represent Odeco or to enter into agreements. The DNER decision has made the people of Doña Remedios Trinidad and of Bulacan happy as justice has finally triumphed, while hundreds of unemployed would return to their jobs and progress from mining activities would resume.