MVP’s ballgame

It is a basic and well-recognized principle in law that the right to due process guaranteed under the Philippine Constitution applies to citizens and foreigners alike. In fact, it is a universal right.

So when a local corporation intimidates a foreign businessman doing legitimate business in the country in order to deprive him of his property, then such an act should be condemned to the highest degree and should not go unpunished.

Stars Navigation, a 100 percent Filipino owned company which has a contract Negros Navigation for the housekeeping and concessionaire service for three years now, is now being allegedly harassed by Nenaco officials and for what reason? It appears that several longtime Nenaco managers who have been with the company even before Manny Pangilinan’s First Pacific came into the picture are interested in taking over the business but do not want to pay Stars for it.

And not only that, Jonathan Thorp, a consultant of Stars, has found himself and his family being followed by uniformed men. To add insult to injury, Nenaco officials allegedly caused the publication of several news reports that Thorp was on the PDEA drug lord watch list and that he is a member of some mafia. There were also some paid‚ news reports claiming that Stars is a manpower recruitment company, a claim that is totally untrue. (It appears that Nenaco is causing the publication of press releases which appear to be Stars’ releases when they are not.)

Fearing for his life, he wrote the British Embassy asking for help. Following the letter, an emergency meeting was held bet-ween top officials of Metro Pacific, owner of Nenaco, and the British ambassador.

Stars has done nothing but good for Nenaco. In spite of the latter’s refusal to pay for services rendered, Stars has not abandoned ship so to speak and continues to provide quality service to the passengers of Nenaco’s remaining three ships. When Nenaco management needed money, Stars was there to lend it.

Over the past three years, Stars has paid Nenaco more than P30 million which Stars believes has helped Nenaco a lot.

In a recent letter to Nenaco president Augusto Palisoc, Thorpe noted that the number of passengers of Nenaco has been reduced dramatically compared to last year. But instead of concentrating on developing the business, middle management is wasting time, money and resources in trying to threaten and bankrupt Stars and in allowing a syndicate well-entrenched at Nenaco to take back the concessionaire business for which Stars has paid Nenaco P10 million in terms of three years advance rental.

Thorpe says Nenaco management wants to evict Stars from Pier 2 and the vessels and have their foreign consultants deported from the Philippines and not pay anything for the onboard assets, stocks, goodwill, liabilities and reputation of Stars.

Thorpe likewise reminded Palisoc that there is a Manila RTC order for Nenaco to immediately pay Stars more than P17 million and to observe a status quo on their existing contract. The amount are current billings and therefore not covered by the April 2004 stay order of the court against any payments to creditors as part of the court-approved rehabilitation program.

And what is Manny Pangilinan doing about all this?

I would like to believe that Pangilinan’s group knows absolutely nothing about the graft and corruption by Nenaco middle management and the harassment tactics being utilized to avoid payment of obligations. After all, Nenaco is a very small business compared to PLDT and Smart. It seems that Pangilinan’s group has been made to believe that Nenaco can still be turned around by long-time personnel of the beleaguered shipping company so that they can keep their lucrative jobs and continue to bleed Nenaco dry.

If Mr. Pangilinan, being the responsible businessman and respected manager that he is, should not let this shenanigans at Nenaco continue. Why should he let his good name and his achievements at PLDT and Smart go to waste in order to benefit people who obviously do not care about Nenaco. The ball is now in MVP’s court.

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