Court urged to let PNCC keep profit from toll roads

MANILA, Philippines—The group of William Gatchalian wants Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) to keep its share of the profit from major toll roads instead of remitting the bulk of the amount to the government.

In a disclosure on Thursday, publicly listed PNCC said Forum Holdings Corp. had asked the Parañaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) to issue an injunction on all future dividend payments by the PNCC to the government’s Asset Privatization Trust, the firm’s largest shareholder.

PNCC president Luis Sison said Forum, which owns a minority stake in PNCC, was indirectly owned by the Gatchalian group.

The suit, Sison explained, was an apparent effort to restore PNCC’s financial health.

“If the suit succeeds, the money will stay with PNCC,” Sison said, adding that the practice of remitting the bulk of its profit to the government was not in the company’s “best interest.”

PNCC has stakes in the concessionaires and operators of the North Luzon Expressway, South Luzon Expressway and the Metro Manila Skyway.

PNCC said its board was informed of the complaint on April 16. Named defendants were private toll operators Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), Toll Management Corp. (TMC), Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp. (CMMTC), South Luzon Tollway Corp. (SLTC), Manila Toll Expressway Systems Inc. (Mates) and Skyway O&M Corp. (Somco).

PNCC said the private firms named in the suit were “joint venture companies in which the [PNCC] is involved.”

“The complaint primarily seeks to enjoin PNCC and defendant corporations from remitting to the government the shares and income, and dividends derived from said shares in the defendant corporations,” PNCC said.

The court was also asked to grant Forum the authority to inspect PNCC’s books as a shareholder.