Biz Buzz: In the dead of night

One would think that corporate regulators would act with dispatch when faced with a case where a stockbroker is suspected of committing fraud and accused of losing billions in pesos worth of clients’ money. But that doesn’t seem to the be case with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which, Biz Buzz has heard, has yet to act on the request of a stock market watchdog for the takeover of the controversial DW Capital Inc.

Recall, of course, that key officials of DW Capital have been accused of having traded the stocks of Cebuano businessman Eddie Gaisano without the authorization of the mall tycoon (which, incidentally, is the father-in-law of DW Capital’s boss, Derwin Wong). The total damage, according to bourse sources, was P2.6 billion worth of stocks that have now vanished. Ouch.

In any case, Capital Markets Integrity Corp.—the independent watchdog of the Philippine Stock Exchange—has filed a petition with the SEC asking that it be empowered to take over DW Capital. The goal is to preserve the records of the stockbrokerage a well as its assets, in case things need to be liquidated to compensate aggrieved clients.

But almost a month after the petition was filed, the SEC has yet to grant CMIC’s request. Why? Who knows why?

Meanwhile, word among our sources at the Ayala Tower One building is that that two steel filing cabinets were taken out of DW Capital’s office on the 16th floor of the building two Friday evenings ago. The Biz Buzz source, who was able to view the CCTV security tapes, said an additional 34 boxes worth of records were also “spirited out” on the following Saturday, in the dead of night.

Without any order from the SEC, no one could stop the offices from being emptied out, of course.

Well, maybe the SEC should just forget about that CMIC takeover request. “Good luck with finding anything now,” said one bourse official. Perhaps the victims should be asking the corporate regulator what’s causing the delay? —DAXIM L. LUCAS

Peza predicament

Much is expected when a government agency publicly announces a project that would be one of the biggest proposals your agency would receive to-date. Not only does the total cost of this project raise eyebrows, but the investor linked to it has been controversial for being accused of economic crimes. With this level of pressure, the least you could expect is that they would get the company’s name right.

And that is exactly what didn’t happen.

This was the rather interesting predicament that faced the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) over the weekend. To recall, Peza announced in a press conference last week that they had prequalified a 30-year development project with a total cost of P18 trillion. Let the cost of this project in Pangasinan, which is much bigger than the 6-year infrastructure budget of the entire Duterte administration for the whole country, sink in for a while.

Now that it has sunk in, Peza said last week that the company’s name was First Pangasinan Industrial Corp (FPIC). In the same breath, a top official of Peza said that they were being “very careful” with this project given that it was linked to the alleged Taiwanese economic fugitive Chen You-hao, an investor who has been accused of economic crimes such as fraud and embezzlement in Taiwan.

Apparently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) does not have a record of this name. Peza would correct itself over the weekend after the comment from SEC came out, saying that it was actually First Pangasinan Property Development Corp. A quick check with SEC showed that Peza finally got it right the second time around.

A top official of Peza was not quick to admit this mistake, even calling the SEC official who made the comment “irresponsible.” However, later on, the admission was bound to happen.

So what was the reason for the blunder? It was quite simple, actually. It was just a “typographical error,” although FPIC was the name announced numerous times during the press conference last week.

One could say that it was a mistake that anyone could make. But then again, if you’re the lead agency doing the due diligence for a controversial project, the question is, is this the kind of mistake you can afford to make? —ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL

‘Envied’

The law office of University of Santo Tomas law school dean Nilo Divina has built a solid reputation for itself in a short span of time, successfully representing some of the country’s largest corporations in their legal issues. And the success has become apparent in the expansion of the law office, hiring new lawyers to work its growing number of cases and consequently growing its physical offices, too.

But has all this good business attracted the attention of critics and detractors, as well? That seems to be the case, given some messages being passed around in recent days the old fashioned way: Via text messaging.

One such text message seems to be targeting Commission on Elections Chair Andres Bautista, but has thrown in Divina for good measure, alleging that the latter will be included in the complaint against the embattled elections chief as well as supposedly being aligned against the current administration (unlikely given the legal record and activities of Divina and his law firm during the 2016 polls). One would be forgiven for thinking that the rumors are being spread by other law firms from which Divina may have drawn his clients away from.

The good news is that Divina Law’s large clients have all reaffirmed their commitments to the firm. And the bonus? Another conglomerate just signed the law office up to represent it.

Not bad for a firm that’s supposedly in the middle of a crisis. —DAXIM L. LUCAS