The ZTE-NBN Senate Hearing
Joker Arroyo still doesn't get it, does he? He still belabored the point regarding Amsterdam Holdings' capitalization and the non-appearance of Joey De Venecia's name under the Articles of Incorporation. I find it shallow that Joker, after all these years, has not grasped the idea of what a shell company is. I still remember the same dramatics-laden argument he performed in Davide's court during Erap's trial. His
stagnation as a lawyer has contributed much to his personal decay that after six years, its seems still is not aware (or just stupid?) that many corporations DO exist only on paper in SEC.
Financial requirements? A minimum capital stock worth P1M, with 25% (or P250K) subscribed upon incoporation, and 25% (or P62,500) of the subscribed actually paid-up upon incorporation. This amount can be withdrawn immediately upon approval of SEC.
What is a shell corporation? It is the practice of many law firms to create "Corporations-on-Paper" that they sell to businessmen that do not want to go through the process which, even via DTI's express lane, is quite tedious. I went through this experience myself. If Joey De Venecia bought this shell company called
"Amsterdam Holdings, Inc." from a lawyer, as he claims, of course, the Articles will contain names of officers that the law firm listed at the time of incorporation, it's that simple! Further, once the corporation DOES start operating, all expenses UNTIL such time it can generate income to finance operating cost ALL become part of capital. Working Capital cannot be DETERMINED from the Articles of Incorporation, nor can you find JDV3's NAME in it. You will only find it in the Financial Staements and Transfer Books, respectively.
Eureka! Joker declared during Erap's trial he had found gold when he "discovered" that the corporations Erap used were undercapitalized and used dummies as officers. This is the same line he has on his fishing pole with JDV3 today.
He made a fool of himself then, he did it again, today.
posted by Tongue's Wrath @ 9/26/2007 04:39:00 PM
7 Comments:
Hi Tongue,
In Mlq3’s liveblog feed today, Neri said or rather someone called Sales said that there were no other proposals so difficult to make comparisson - one senator quipped, NEDA didn’t do job properly - then insisted that this deal was based on tied loan.
Actually it’s line agency that didn’t do its job properly - how can they be so sure that other govts can’t propose better loan terms if they didn’t ask other govts. All they have to do is inform embassies in Manila soliciting proposals. Embassies would have done job for them contacting industries. DoTC didn’t even have to get off its backside and proposals would be “pouring in”.
Embassy economic post would have lobbied with their govt for back to back govt loans.
Only way to know if Chinese offer is good offer.
In other words, however they want to slice this as being tied to China govt loan, etc., this ZTE deals smacks of corruption, not only financially but morally.
At the very least, RP govt line agency has been very negligent and NEDA has not been up to their task. At that level, it’s RP chief exec who should be blamed. Am trying to be very objective here and do not wish to accuse her of anything at this point save for gross negligence. She has command responsiblity.
For one who is reputed to be micro management prone, she overlooked, and only god knows why, the flaws and gross negligence committed by her cabinet men in the performance of their tasks.
ZTE deal is purely commercial transaction even if backed by their own govt banks (Chinese) so it’s not as if this deal is a national security treaty matter involving China that president cannot question or compare it with other possible offers from other countries.
Any way you look at it, this deal is fishy.
And really, even if I try my darnest best to be cold about this issue, I see corrupt hands dipping their fingers in govt treasury to take money and to put in their own personal, private banks.
A.
Anna,
I agree with your point that DOTC deserves much of the blame, but in the end it was the non-technical guy Mendoza who looked most innocent because he relied mostly on his technocrats and opinions of everybody else. I would assume, he was (or appeared to be)trying his best to pre-clear his decision with everybody involved. On the other hand, that may be where the twist really lies, huh! It also looked to me that the system had built-in defects that these crooks exploited in order to make a lot of moolah.
One Senator (Jinggoy? I cannot
recall) pointed out no one is man enough to admit his fault instead conveniently points to the next guy and says he is only involved so much, in this or that capacity for a ministerial function, blah blah blah.
Incompetence is one trait shared by all of them, stupidity traceable in their DNA. No one is accountable, no one is responsible enough, no one's decision is final, BUT EVERYONE APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN BRIBED! Loose ends left untied to provide an escape route for Neri, Abalos, Teves, Mendoza or whoever is the most stupid one who will be left behind. All these point to insufficient, or the total absence, if not disregard, of existing state policies of privatization, encouraging competition, transparency, priority, etc. in order to rationalize availment of Chinese loanable funds which are very attractively dangled to them.
Your suggestion that informing commercial attaches of the diplomatic community would have generated enough technical and financial alternatives, but of course, you won't get bribes THAT BIG, if at all.
Legarda, this time was sharp and pointed out to Neri his fallible defense that he does not have influence on how a project is decided, awarded and implemented. He kept repeating he just approves viability not the suppliers.
If that were so, why was he offered a P200M bribe, asked Legarda, despite his "insignificance" which irked Neri and he got personal with Loren.
Frankly, despite Neri's admission of a bribe attempt, I feel he was more of a disappointment and he did not only shield Gloria, but in the process, appeared hell-bent on making Abalos the sole scapegoat and that might have adversely affected his credibility.
I wonder what they hope to achieve in inviting him to a closed-door session.
Neri's golden opportunity has arrived, but he squandered it.
I knew it, assholes are born, not made.
Nothing came out of the executive session. He stuck to his previous defense of executive privilege. If the senate cannot illicit any info from the government, they should focus on the private personalities mentioned by Joey. Unfortunately, they accompanied Mike Arroyo on his trip.
Mschumey07,
Thanks for reminding. Ricky Razon's name getting mentioned again, that is. The first time, he was mentioned by Joey DV as one of the buyers of Broadband Philippines' shares Joey unloaded to the Sorianos and Ibazetas, Razon was one of them.
What I cannot connect is: If Neri appeared to be sympathetic to Joey DV's proposal and was against Razon, one of his tormentors, because he favored opening up the ports' operations to a third competitor, why then would he approve the ZTE proposal and allow Razon a hefty commission that would have allowed him to provide funding for the Admin's candidates in the elections as ordered by Mike Arroyo, if such talks, were true?
But then again, he was transfered to CHED, apparently, immediately after approving the deal. Was it his personal preference to be removed, or was it to allow him to cool off because he was "used" by Gloria to favor Razon?
I can assume, Razon went with the deal going to ZTE instead of having his co-owned company clinch the contract first then sub-contract it later to ZTE because the commissions were bigger with ZTE's direct contract and that JOEY DV or other parties interested, including Broadband Phils., would be deprived of a fair bidding due to the tied-loan agreement.
Talk about greed!
Now, look at the characters. Razon apparently is not within the sphere of influence of Abalos, the hitman, or vice-versa. The only person that seems to connect to (and have infuence over) both is Mike Arroyo. That explains, I guess, why Razon flew with FG on the "emergency trip" to Europe.
Initially, I got the impression that Pimentel's line of questioning would lead to connecting Mike Arroyo to the contract. He brought up the issue between Neri and Razon but I was dismayed that he did not pursue it, or didn't know how to.
Sayang naman.
Re: Joker. He is preaching to the choir. He knows that not everyone knows about shell corporations (I sure don't, though I am familiar with the Corporation Code), that's why he was belaboring that point. He wanted the people to believe that JDV3's companies were not qualified to handle the NBN project.
That's why lawyers like you should blog. We need you to tell us when our legs are being pulled. Thanks.
Arbet,
I'm no lawyer. Heheh. It just happened that when our group was involved in a tech start-up, we were offered available shell corporations that have complete incorporation papers, and very attractive names, too. My partners however thumbed-down the extra cost and we did save a bunch when we had the application done ourselves.
Most businessmen buy these shells on emergency cases only (fast-track deals, availability of partners and their papers, etc.)
BTW, Arbet, welcome pala!
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