Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) has asked the Court of Appeals to suspend trading on shares of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on the stock exchange until questions on the ownership of 42 million Meralco shares are resolved.

In a petition filed Dec. 17 with the court’s Special First Division, a copy of which was obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, LBP said trading of all Meralco shares — not only of the contested shares held by LBP which Meralco had transferred to a certain Josefina Lubrica — should be suspended until “the issue of the true ownership has been decided upon with finality.”

The petition said such a suspension would “prevent grave and irreparable injury to LBP and the investing public and restore the people’s confidence in shares of stock.”

Meralco late last year canceled about 42 million Meralco stock certificates held by LBP and issued new ones in favor of Lubrica, citing an Oct. 24 order of the Regional Agrarian Reform Adjudicator relating to a piece of contested land under the government’s agrarian reform program.

Lubrica is an assignee of Federico Suntay, who is among claimants of a piece of agricultural land in the province of Occidental Mindoro that had been expropriated under the land reform program and valued by the Department of Agrarian Reform at P4.25 million.

Trading on Meralco shares was suspended starting Dec. 17. Their last closing price was P59.50.

At that price, LBP’s 42 million shares are worth about P2.5 billion.

Philippine Stock Exchange president Francis Lim said in a text message to the Inquirer that the stock exchange had not received a copy of the LBP petition but “we will take it upon the advice of counsel when we do.”

In its petition, LBP also asked the court to restrain the corporate secretary of Meralco from recording or registering in the company’s stock and transfer book the transfer of ownership of LBP’s Meralco shares to other parties.

The legal dispute is affecting a major transaction on Meralco shares: sale of some P10 billion worth of shares held by three government financial institutions, including LBP.

That sale will push through once legal obstacles are cleared, government sources said Monday.

The LBP-held shares are part of a block of Meralco shares to be sold to Global 5000 Investment Inc., a local investment fund led by business magnates Iñigo Zobel, Roberto Ongpin and Jose Campos Jr. Edited by INQUIRER.net