PCGG working to recover more sequestered SMC shares

The Presidential Commission on Good Government's (PCGG) pursuit to acquire more sequestered shares in beer and food conglomerate San Miguel Corporation continues, the head of the commission said. The PCGG is seeking the recovery of 4 percent in SMC treasury shares that the Supreme Court had ruled belonged to the government. According to PCGG chairman Andres Bautista, the cases to recover the shares are still active in the Sandiganbayan. In 1986, the PCGG sequestered a 47-percent block of shares in SMC allegedly purchased with coco levy funds—a 20-percent block of which was later ruled as belonging to former Marcos crony Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., and the remaining 27-percent block later awarded with finality by the Supreme Court to the government in 2012. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the PCGG turned over P70 billion to the National Treasury, the equivalent of the 27 percent in recovered SMC shares—which had been diluted to 24 percent after Japan's Kirin Brewery invested in the company. — BM, GMA News