Workers seek court order to stop Skyway deal

 Two labor unions have petitioned the Parañaque City Regional Trial Court (RTC) to stop what they said was an alleged grossly disadvantageous deal forged by the Philippine National Construction Corp. and the PNCC Skyway Corp. (PSC) to transfer the right to maintain, operate and collect toll fees at the South Metro Manila Skyway (SMMS) to an undercapitalized and foreign-controlled firm for only P320 million.

The PSC Employees Union and the PNCC Traffic Management and Security Department Workers Organization, headed by Jose Apollo Ado and Rene Soriano, respectively, filed a complaint that assailed an amended supplemental toll operation agreement (ASTOA) and a memorandum of agreement (MOA) forged by the PNCC and PSC with the Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp. that resulted in the PSC ceding its right as operator of the Skyway system to a newly-formed entity identified as the Skyway O&M Corp. (SOMCO).

In a 15-page complaint filed last Jan. 3, the two unions said the two agreements were contrary to law and detrimental to the interests of the government.

According to the two unions, SOMCO was incorporated only last Dec. 13 and its incorporation papers stated that it has a subscribed capital stock of only P2.5 million, of which only P1.3 million was paid.

A little more than a week after SOMCO’s incorporation, PNCC president and chief executive officer Ma. Theresa Defensor, and PSC chairwoman Josefa Aquino signed the MOA with Citra last Dec. 21, transferring to SOMCO the right to operate, maintain and collect toll fees at the Skyway starting Jan. 1.

“Being a separate legal personality, SOMCO stands to earn at least P400 million in gross revenues for a measly capital investment of P2.5 million,” the unions’ complaint said.

The unions also alleged that since SOMCO has been in existence for only a month, with no proven track record in toll operations, its takeover “would result in the poor delivery of toll services and higher toll fee rates to recoup possible losses as a result of inexperience.”

The unions also questioned the foreign participation in SOMCO as they noted that according to its incorporation papers, 40 percent of SOMCO is principally owned by CMMTC with the remaining 60 percent owned by a certain Toll Road Operation and Maintenance Venture Corp. (TROMVC), which was incorporated last Oct. 25.

From its incorporation papers, the TROMVC has a subscribed capital of P250,500. Forty percent of TROMVC is reportedly controlled by a Singaporean firm and another 40 percent controlled by a certain Assetvalues Holding Company, Inc. which was incorporated last Dec. 5.

Assetvalues, in turn, is almost 40 percent owned by a Dutch national, and the remaining shares held by Metro Strategic Infrastructure Holdings, Inc., which is 40 percent controlled by Metro Pacific Corp.

First Pacific Holdings, whose majority stockholder is Malaysian, controls Metro Pacific Corp.

In a hearing yesterday on the petition filed before Parañaque RTC Branch 258 Judge Raul de Leon, the unions presented an amended complaint wherein they included a copy of the Dec. 21 MOA.

The unions said the P320 million will just settle the more than P700 million that the PNCC and PSC did not remit to Citra for several years. As a financier-investor in the construction of the Skyway, Citra is entitled to 87 percent of Skyway toll collections.

Under the MOA, the PNCC had its share of Skyway toll collections reduced from 10 percent to 2.5 percent until 2009. With the P320 million not enough to settle the arrears, the MOA also carried a provision that 65 percent of the PNCC’s 2.5 percent share in the Skyway toll collections will go to settle the balance of its debt to Citra.

The PNCC’s share will increase to 3.5 percent once the second stage of the Skyway project, which will involve the construction of an elevated highway from Bicutan to Alabang, starts in January 2010 and completed in 2015.

A 30-year franchise period for the Skyway project will start in 2015 and end by 2045.

Aside from being grossly disadvantageous, the unions said that the PNCC could not legally transfer its franchise as tollway operator at the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX).

The unions said that the PNCC, by virtue of Presidential Decree 1113 issued by then President Ferdinand Marcos in 1977 to give the government-controlled company the franshise to operate tollways at the SLEX, was not allowed to transfer the franchise to another entity.

 “The franchise of the toll operations under Presidential Decree 1113, as amended, is exclusively vested to defendant PNCC, exercised by its wholly-owned subsidiary defendant PSC,” they said.

Leaders of two labor unions are waging a fight against the takeover of the Skyway by SOMCO, which allegedly refused to absorb the PSC employees retrenched by PSC when it ceded control to SOMCO.