Marcos petition to bar GMA Network from going public junked

The Securities and Exchange Commission has dismissed the petition filed by former Representative Maria Imelda “Imee" Marcos to reject GMA Network Inc.'s registration statement and suspend the company's right to sell its shares to the public. Marcos alleged in her complaint that GMA Network failed to disclose that the shares held by Gilberto M. Duavit and his family were merely held in trust for the Marcoses, which constitutes an act of misrepresentation. GMA Network disputed her claims and said that the shares are owned by the Duavits in their own right and not as mere trustees of the Marcoses. The SEC sided with GMA Network, adding that no pending case impugning the ownership of the said shares has been filed in court by Marcos against the Duavits. “Those Duavit shares were acquired by them (Duavits) as early as September 1974 or thirty-three years now. They have been in possession of those shares for that long period of time," GMA Network legal counsel Gener Asuncion said. - GMANews.TV (GMANews.TV is the official website of GMA News and Public Affairs, a unit of GMA Network Inc.)