Logging company workers want to regain share of stocks they say were lost to Marcoses, crony

The Diatagon Labor Federation (DLF)—a group composed of workers of Lianga Bay Logging Company Inc. (LBLCI) based in Surigao del Sur—is fighting to regain what they say is their rightful 60-percent share of the said logging company they lost to the late President Ferdinand Marcos and his crony, Peter Sabido, it was learned on Thursday.

The DLF, represented by its counsel Edgardo Layne, presented one from their ranks, Diosdado Ranque, to bolster the bid as plaintiff-intervenor in the Civil Case 0024 involving the Philippine government’s ill-gotten wealth case against Marcos’s wife, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, and their cronies Luis Yulo, Roberto Benedicto, Nicolas Dehesa, Jose Tengco Jr, Rafael Sison, Cesar Zalamea and Don Ferry before the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division.

In his 13-page affidavit that he swore an oath on before the anti-graft court, Ranque said that the Lianga Bay workers who are members of the DLF are the legitimate owners of 60 percent of all the total shareholdings of LBLCI consisting of 35,432 shares of stocks at US$90.00 per share based on the Divestment Program submitted by the Lianga Bay’s American founders to and approved by the Philippine government on June 23, 1974.

The Americans were from Georgia Pacific International Corporation (GPIC).

Further, Ranque said that the Divestment Program is in accordance with the 1973 Philippine Constitution that was in effect at the time and which stated that all rights acquired by American citizens under the Parity Amendment with respect to the exploration, utilization and operation of natural resources shall expire automatically on July 3, 1974—the same date that the Laurel-Langley Agreement expired.

Ranque said that the problem started when GPIC sold 30 percent of their shareholdings to the Sabido group and Peter Sabido started paying himself P312,000 per month in 1981 as his salary or management fee as president of LBLCI, a salary rate that he based on a Management Agreement.

“Peter Sabido wanted to hold full control of the company and wanted that the worker's 60% shareholdings be transferred to his name. He initiated plans in connivance with the trustee bank by means of pressuring the workers to sign a ready-made waiver of rights, which the workers refused to sign,” Ranque said.

“Peter Sabido arrogated unto himself and took control of the 60% shares of the workers and made inimical acts to the prejudice of the workers. I witnessed how the operation of the company was being mismanaged and manipulated by the Sabido group, resulting in the downfall of LBLCI,” Ranque added.

Ranque also claimed that the LBLCI, under the Sabido group’s leadership, made over-shipment of logs by 25% to 30% as compared to the actually loaded logs in the ship. Likewise, the loading in ships ranged from four to five times per month, and that the Sabido group would earn P90 million a year for such over-shipment spanning from 1982 to 1986.

“I witnessed some of their illegal transactions but we cannot do anything because it has the blessing of the top management. Aside from that, the company's internal auditor Leonardo L. Lomukso executed a Sworn Affidavit regarding those anomalous transactions,” Ranque said.

It only got worse from that point, Ranque said, since Peter Sabido’s group co-mingled the funds of his own company, PIMECO, with the funds of LBLCI, to pay PIMECO's Lease Purchase Agreement with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) when PIMECO was already operating at a loss.

Ranque said Sabido then decided to abandon the LBLCI when the Philippine government, through the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) and the Office of the Solicitor General, filed ill-gotten wealth cases against Sabido and the rest of the accused in 1987.

Ranque also claimed that when the PCGG appointed lawyer Napoleon Sales to serve as chairman of the board and general manager of LBLCI, their situation became worse as Sales entered into a Log Harvesting Contract Agreement with the Davao Metal Enterprises at P2,500.00 per cubic meter which was almost double the harvesting cost.

Finally, the Sales management and Sabido's group leased the Lianga Bay Veneer and Plywood Processing Plant, including all equipment, to Davao Metal Enterprises at an agreed rental price of P200,000 a month that led to the logging company’s closure in 1992.

DLF’s counsel Layne, in the same affidavit, said that Ranque’s testimony is being offered to prove the following:

• that employees and/or workers of LBLCI who are all members of the DLF are the owners of 60% of all the total shareholdings of LBLCI consisting of 35,432 shares of stocks at US$90.00 per share;
• that LBLCI closed its business operation sometime in 1992 due to heavy losses resulting from numerous, huge and anomalous transactions perpetrated by Sabido in connivance with other persons, including the mismanagement and negligence of former officers of the PCGG;
• that Peter Sabido and his group and former PCGG officers did not remit the SSS contributions of workers who are members of DLF;
• that workers of LBLCI were not paid their Retirement Plan or Separation Pay, Insurance Premiums, Cooperative Shares, Unpaid Salaries and Wages, Backwages, Accrued Savings, Vacation and Sick Leaves, Bonuses, etc.; and
• that LBLCI was under the control of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his cronies including Peter A. Sabido, among others.

Sabido’s camp were informed of Thursday’s hearing but they did not send any legal counsel or representative. — BM, GMA News