Yasay: Stradec can manipulate SEC records

Alarmed by reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) data base could be manipulated, former SEC chairman Perfecto Yasay warned yesterday of the danger that files involving the other cases against President Estrada might be distorted to serve the interests of Malacañang.

There are other uncovered cases, he said, involving the President and his family and a deeper investigation might hit a snag if documents have been mangled and information covered up in an attempt to contain the crisis now besetting the Presidency.

Already, Yasay revealed, it has been "so difficult to get information from the SEC especially on corporations suspected to be linked with the President" owing to the fact that the agency’s officials have disabled SEC’s computerized "reverse search facility."

Investigators, he said, usually resort to the "reverse search facility" if they cannot access the identities of the stockholders of companies suspected to be controlled by the President after typing in the corporations’ names in the computer.

"With the reverse search facility you can just type in the name of the president and people close to him and you will know what corporations they are part of and the roles they play in these companies," Yasay said.

According to Yasay, the Strategic Alliance Development Corp. (Stradec), which is reportedly close to one of President Estrada’s mistresses, now has control over SEC’s management information system owing to the "super user" password given it by the corporate watchdog.

Earlier, however, SEC Chairman Lilia B. Bautista refuted The STAR’s story that a firm allegedly close to one of President Estrada’s mistresses got control of the SEC’s data base.

Bautista said Stradec along with Compaq, Sybase, Cisco, Helden Construction and other companies, has gone ahead with the study at its own expense.

Bautista also denied reports that SEC’s data base has already been tampered with by Stradec owing to its possession of the "super user" password, maintaining that the agency has upheld the integrity of its records division.

"As to the password, for purposes of protecting the integrity and confidentiality of the SEC records, the password was divided into two– one part given to the assistant commission secretary, a SEC employee, and the other part is given to Mr. (Jhonnel ) Kabigting. Stradec never had any access to the "super user" password at any time. All key persons who have access to the password are available at all times during office hours," Bautista explained.

The "super user" password is a highly confidential password which enables anybody who knows it to access any information known to the agency, especially records of both old and new corporations.

Not only should the password be kept from outsiders, but also from SEC officials as lofty as the chairman herself, Yasay claims. He said that "during my time I didn’t even know the password since it’s too powerful, a tool that has access to the innards of the computer system."

"It’s true that information is open to the public but there is restriction whereby the record system’s integrity will be insulated from any manner of manipulation," he pointed out.

Already, Yasay said, a close Presidential friend has boasted that he can manipulate any information from the SEC’s database to favor shareholders of a company allegedly close to one of President Estrada’s mistresses.

Yasay was referring to Jaime Dichavez, Estrada’s point man, who, he said, threatened to kick Catalino Tan out of China Chiang Jiang, a company which Tan controls, by distorting SEC’s database.

China Chiang Jiang has won the bidding for the construction of the Binga Power Plant in Northern Luzon, but the contract awarded to the company still did not sit well with Estrada who, he said, neglected to monitor the bidding.

"He (Estrada) didn’t like the idea of Chiang Jiang winning the bid because minority shareholders of the company who happen to be close to (one of President Estrada’s mistresses) will not get the lion’s share of the income," Yasay said, adding that Estrada wanted Tan out of the company so that shareholders close to one of the President’s mistresses will control the company.

"Someday, you will just wake up with corporate papers of Chiang Jiang showing you are no longer in control of the company," Yasay quoted Dichavez as telling Tan when both men are trying to settle the dispute at the agency.

"To hear that from Dichavez is scary since it was Estrada himself who told me that he would do everything at the SEC through him (Dichavez)," Yasay said, adding that it was Dichavez himself whom Estrada assigned to "arrange for my resignation."

Although Bautista, Yasay said, can deny Stradec’s possession of the password, she cannot disown memoranda stating the transfer of the authority to use the all-powerful password to the company.

"We also have to keep a jaundiced eye on the memorandum of understanding between SEC and Stradec since it is tantamount to excluding other bidders," Yasay said.

It is anomalous, he added, for SEC to let Stradec face the "Swiss challenge" after the feasibility study is over since it has to maintain a level playing field.

"If Stradec has offered the study free of charge, it’s Stradec’s business decision," he reasoned. "It doesn’t mean they be given the right of first refusal inherent in the Swiss challenge."

This transaction, he said, reeks of irregularities to discerning observers "since it is obvious that SEC is out to rig the bidding in favor of the company known to be close to one of the President’s mistresses."

Ramon Borromeo, Stradec vice president, denied having used Palace connections to bag juicy government contracts for the last couple of years, involving Metro Manila Skyway, Land Transportation Office, and the Batangas Toolroad.

"Stradec gets projects because it has established itself as a reliable developer of projects," Borromeo said, adding that Stradec’s other projects were undertaken during the Ramos administration.

After the feasibility study, he said, Stradec will bid, along with other interested companies, for the modernization of SEC management information system but if its bid ends up to be inferior to the other bidders, it will have "the right to match" their offers to win the contract.