Tuna firm exec: Records will show no violation

A businessman facing arrest in connection with the dispute in ownership of P564 million worth of shares in a tuna canning company on Monday insisted on his innocence.

In a statement, Jonathan Dee said he was willing to answer the allegations against him and four other executives of Alliance Select Foods International Inc. who were accused by their former business partners of arbitrarily hiding the financial and corporate records of the publicly listed company.

He expressed confidence that he would be eventually exonerated after a Pasig City court issued an arrest warrant against him and his colleagues — George SyCip, Raymond See, Marie Grace Vera-Cruz and Antonio Pacis.

Records clear

“The records will clearly show that there was no violation of the Corporate Code and that Alliance Food board voted to allow the complainants to exercise their rights on an inspection,” Dee said.

“Unfortunately, the process was delayed by the actions of the complainants themselves, which we will show in the coming days,” he added.

According to Dee, the Department of Justice had concluded that they did not deny the right of the officials of Harvest All Investment Ltd., Victory Fund Ltd. and Bondeast Private Ltd. to scrutinize the company’s financial records.

“We are confident that the facts will bear out that there had been no violations at all, and this will hopefully lead to a speedy dismissal of the complaints,” Dee said.

Marcos law

SyCip, son of the late respected business tycoon Washington SyCip, and his business associates were ordered arrested for alleged violation of Sections 74 and 75 of the Marcos-era edict Batas Pambansa Bilang 68, or the Corporation Code of the Philippines.

In his order, Presiding Judge Christian Emmanuel Pimentel of the Pasig Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 69 said SyCip should stand trial.

The order said after a “personal examination of the information” and evidence, “this court hereby finds that there exists a probable cause for the commission of the crimes charged.”

In a statement issued on Sunday night, Alliance Select Foods International said it had yet to see copies of the warrant of arrest against the company officials.