Reghis Romero still controls harbor center, lawyer insists

The Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI), the company that owns and operates the Manila Harbor Center, on Tuesday said it remained in control of the P5-billion facility despite the recent ruling of the Court of Appeals that favored a former port service provider.

In a statement, HCPTI lawyer Eugene Santiago said that the appellate court’s May 12 ruling did not involve the issue on ownership of the company and that businessman Reghis Romero II remained in control and continued to manage the facility.

Santiago said the court explicitly ruled that “all other matters pertaining to the legitimacy of the board of directors HCPTI, the question on the authenticity and due execution of the port ancillary services contract and port services management contract, as well as the deed(s) of assignments, must therefore be left for the determination of the respective regional trial courts, where the main cases are pending.”

The court decision does not place Romero’s estranged son Michael, One Source Support Services Inc. or any of its/his agents, employees, representatives or persons under its/his control or direction in possession, control, management, and/or operations of HCPTI, the lawyer explained.

The subject matter of the Court of Appeals decision, he added, was limited only to the affirmation of the 20-day temporary restraining order of the Pasig City regional trial court, issued on Dec. 1, 2014, stopping Romero and his companies from disrupting One Source’s operations in the facility.

The lawyer said the dispositive portion explicitly remands the case to the lower court for further proceedings.

The feud between father and son stemmed from Michael’s claim that his company, Harbour Center Port Holdings Inc., has gained majority control of HCPTI through the transfer of shares owned by his father’s companies.

Factions identified with the father and son filed various civil and criminal cases in Manila, Quezon City, Pasig City and Marikina City courts.