Re Biz Buzz item: No final court ruling yet on Stradcom

Lest the public be misled, we wish to correct the statements of Daxim Lucas in the Biz Buzz column item titled “Stradcom conundrum” (Business, 2/10/14).

It is completely untrue that the Supreme Court has ruled with finality that Cezar Quiambao is the rightful owner of Stradcom Corp.  Far from it. The Supreme Court has made it clear, with finality, that the interpleader suit (Case No. Q-11-68723) still being litigated at the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City will resolve the issue of who should control Stradcom and who between the contending factions of Stradcom (Sumbilla and Quiambao groups) should receive the payments due Stradcom.

The government, which filed the interpleader action, is being prudent and is perfectly correct in awaiting the high court’s ruling as to who should be the proper recipient of these funds before making any payments.

What the column item fails to mention is the release of P1 billion to the Quiambao group in 2013. The release, which was approved by Transportation Secretary Jun Abaya and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, was conditioned on the allocation of specific amounts for particular purposes, including the payment of Stradcom debts to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and other corporate debts.  But, as everyone knows, no Stradcom taxes have been paid from these funds.

Nobody knows to this day how the Quiambao group spent the humongous amount of P1 billion and who profited from it. The Quiambao group continues to refuse to render an accounting as to how it has disposed of the P1 billion that is still subject to litigation.

Surely, under these circumstances, the government should not and cannot—as the column item would have it do—prematurely release to the Quiambao group additional billions of pesos, which may well disappear without any accounting whatsoever, even before the interpleader court ascertains which group should be the proper and legal recipient of the funds. To do so would make the government a willing party to fraud, make a mockery of court processes and render ineffectual the very interpleader case it instituted.

—ALMA D. FERNANDEZ-MALLONGA, counsel for Stradcom-Sumbilla Group, Siguion Reyna, Montecillo, & Ongsiako