Harbour Holdings still controls Harbour Centre Port?

The family feud between the Romero father and son over the lucrative port terminal business continues to rage and seems far from over.

Harbour Centre Port Holdings Inc. (HCPHI), led by son Michael Romero, remains the controlling shareholder of the Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI) in Manila, the Quezon City Prosecutor's Office upheld in a resolution, according to a statement distributed to reporters over the weekend.

The decision comes on the heels of allegations that Jerome Canlas, the supposed corporate secretary of Harbour Centre Port Terminal, falsified documents that excluded the holding firm from the list of stockholders of Harbour Centre Port Terminal.

However, Harbour Centre Port Holdings was included in the documents he filed in 2011 to 2013.

Instead, R-II Builders Inc. and R-II Holdings Inc., led by the elder Reghis Romero II, were listed as stockholders of Harbour Centre Port Terminal.

In the same documents, Canlas claimed he was the corporate secretary of Harbour Centre Port Terminal.

In a seven-page resolution over the weekend, Quezon City Acting Prosecutor Ferdinand Fernandez found probable cause to file five counts of falsification of public documents and perjury against Canlas.

In his decision, Fernandez upheld that Canlas "made untruthful statements in the narration of facts in the Complaints-Affidavits, Secretary's Certificate, and General information Sheet of HCPTI subject of the consolidated complaints."

Fernandez noted that since Harbour Centre Port Holdings has not transferred its shares in Harbour Centre Port Terminal to R-II Builders Inc. and R-II Holdings Inc., it remains a stockholder of the port terminal operator.

"(F)or in fact, despite knowing that Harbour Holdings is the majority stockholder of HCPTI and ultimately controls the Board of Directors of the said corporation, he (Canlas) even attempts to eradicate such fact by filing the utterly false General Information Sheet," the resolution read.

The prosecutor emphasized that Canlas was never appointed as corporate secretary of Harbour Centre Port Terminal.

"All the evidence lies against respondent, which evidence shows that he knows he was not appointed by the Board of Directors controlled by Harbour Holdings," the resolution read.

Fernandez claimed his resolution is consistent with the order issued by the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) on May 6, 2015, recognizing HCPHI's ownership of 68.11 percent shareholdings in HCPTI, effectively rejecting Canlas' claim.

"These rulings of the Honorable Office are binding, or at the very least highly persuasive, in these consolidated cases," he said.

The earlier ruling of the Manila RTC held that Harbour Centre Port Holdings remains the majority stockholder of Harbour Centre Port Terminal, and authorized the board of directors to take control over the port facility. – Jon Viktor Cabuena/VS, GMA News