One Source Port sets full takeover of Harbour Centre

MANILA, Philippines - One Source Port Support Services Inc. is preparing the full takeover of the 10-hectare port facility of Harbour Centre Port Holdings Inc. (HCPTI) in Manila after a lower court ordered the eviction of R-II Builders Inc. and R-II Holdings Inc. of businessman Reghis Romero II.

 One Source Port counsel Ryann Macapagal said the company is now preparing for the full takeover of the facility of HCPTI after the Regional Trial Court of Pasig City issued a Permanent Restraining Order against the R-II Group on the strength of the petition filed by One Source Port last November.

Harbour Centre tapped One Source Port in 2007 to render port ancillary services and services management at the Harbour Centre.

“As a result of Mr. Romero’s unlawful takeover of our operations, One Source has become vulnerable to suits and claims from its own personnel, subcontractors, and suppliers, with whom it has contracts as part of its seven years of port operations,” Macapagal said.

Judge Rolando Mislang of Pasig City RTC Branch 167 has directed the two companies owned by Romero to “cease and desist from further disrupting and interfering with the peaceful management, control, operations, and possession of the Harbour Centre Terminal Facility” in Manila after failing to prove ownership and legitimate control of the facility.

Mislang stated in the directive dated Dec. 18, 2014 that Romero and his men “cannot represent themselves as owners of HCPTI, nor collect, receive, and disburse any and all funds on behalf of the company.”

The order also prohibits Romero “from entering the terminal facility with the consent of its legitimate owner or commit any acts prejudicial to the peaceful possession, management, control, operation, and interest of the company’s legitimate operator.”

Romero and his group was accused of illegally taking over the management and operations of Harbour Centre by harassing and evicting Harbour Centre Port Holdings (HCP Holdings).

It would be recalled that Romero “transferred and conveyed to HCP Holdings its majority outstanding capital stock” equivalent to 68.11 percent effectively rescinding control and ownership of Harbour Centre and authority over outstanding contracts of One Source with the port facility in March of 2011.

“R-II Builders, R-II Holdings and Romero, by reason of their divestment of their shares and interest in HCP Terminal, can no longer claim any rights and interest over HCP Terminal,” the court stated in the order.

“Romero, in taking over the operations of the port facility, acted in (their) own interest though pretending to do so in behalf of HCP Terminal which they also took over illegally, without any court order and in a highhanded manner,” the Court added.

 One Source Port has been operating in the Terminal Facility for the last seven years without any issue until the R-II Group evicted the company last Sept. 22 for inefficiency and threatening to rescind the port ancilliary services contract.

 “R-II Builders, R-II Holdings, and Romero must be held liable for their illergal acts of taking over the terminal facility and the operation of One Source without any Court order and reasonable cause. On the other hand, because of HCP Terminal and HCP Holdings’ failure and inability to uphold One Source’s rights and interest over the terminal facility, they must be held equally liable,” the court said.