Persona non grata petition vs. ex-Angkas owner could scare away investors, says Imee Marcos

Senator Imee Marcos frowned upon the proposal of Senator Aquilino Pimentel III to declare as persona non grata Singaporean national Angeline Ximen Tham, who used to own 99.996% of Angkas for her alleged high-handed, arrogant and irresponsible acts.

Marcos said she was surprised with the filing of Senate Resolution 287 as this might send a chilling effect to other foreign investors.

“Nagulat ako nang konti, syempre ayaw natin nang ganun. Kung yung mga foreign investors binablacklist natin o pinepersona non grata baka wala nang pumasok dito sa Pilipinas, ‘wag naman ganun,” she said during Kapihan sa Senado.

She said if a foreign investor violated a law, they should be allowed to correct it.

“Naglabag sila e di ayusin nila, we are now in the process of negotiating,” she said.

Pimentel, in a press statement, said Angkas, as an entity, will not be affected by the resolution he filed.

“The focus only is the foreign national and how she behaved as 99% business owner of Angkas. How many laws were violated by this foreign national? Hence, this cannot be in favor of anybody but the need for the foreigner to now account for her actions,” he said.

He said Tham committed blatant transgressions of Philippine laws, misled, and bullied Philippine government officials.

“Tham is merely a guest of our country, yet she is already acting like an oligarch which she seems hell-bent on becoming at our expense. Her acts of deriding our sovereign laws is high-handed, arrogant and irresponsible, which should not be countenanced but condemned to the fullest,” Pimentel said.

He added that his wife, Kathryn Yu-Pimentel, has no connection with JoyRide president Neil Sherwin Yu.

“Joyride president is a Yu. My wife is a Yu. That’s the critics’ logic even if the two do not know each other at all. I don’t even personally know the first Yu,” he said.

“I might even vote against the legalization of motorcycle taxis due to safety concerns hence I do not have bias in favor of any current operator,” he added.

The senator earlier admitted that his office had endorsed JoyRide’s letter to the Department of Transportation, but the Transportation department did not accommodate them during the first pilot run. —LDF, GMA News