Damage control - Sketches

Here's the buzz (one version, anyway) on the travails of Dante Tan:

It's a battle among presidential friends. Who? One is businessman Mark Jimenez, who is said to have initially owned 25 percent of Best World Resources Corp., with Tan owning 75 percent. Supposedly with presidential persuasion, MJ grudgingly sold out to Tan. It is said that MJ now refers to Tan as his enemy.

Other presidential friends are Willie Osier and Jaime Dichaves, both of Bell Corp. which operates jai alai. Either the fronton is threatened by Tan's Bingo On-line, or the Bell Corp. guys wanted a piece of the bingo action but were turned down by Tan.

Osier is a partner of Wilson Sy of Wealth Securities, one of the heaviest buyers last year when Best World's value was skyrocketing in the stock exchange. The heavy buyers eventually unloaded. The speculative attack left Tan with shares worth P3 each that he bought at P100.

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The other version is that Dante Tan set up dummy accounts and, with the collusion of several securities firms, bought and sold his own stocks to inflate the price.

Philippine Stock Exchange president Jose Luis U. Yulo Jr. believes the buying spree for BW shares from September to October was the result of legitimate investor interest due to reports that Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho was coming in as Best World chairman. Without proper instructions from Tan, his traders continued buying all the way up to BW's high of P107.

In October, however, Ho came under withering criticism in the Philippines for his gambling activities and purported links to the Chinese triads, making him think twice about investing in BW. His ambiguity, Yulo said, triggered the massive selldown of BW shares that month.

"That's what happened here," Yulo told a small group of journalists Tuesday night at the PSE Center. "(Tan) got swallowed in his own game."

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Tan counters, "If I am the manipulator, I should not be holding any shares today."

As you already know, his handlers are accusing Wealth Securities as well as Abacus, Mandarin and Solar Securities of stock manipulation. Yulo and PSE vice president Ruben Almadro said that while the four firms traded in BW shares last year, there was no evidence that they were involved in anomalous practices.

Yesterday, Tan slapped Almadro with a P105-million damage suit. Tan is also on a PR offensive, with help from "destabilizer" Bubby Dacer.

Meeting the press last Tuesday, Tan was articulate, but smiling seemed to pain him. He said he intended to continue building up Bingo On-line from its current 720 terminals to 15,000 nationwide.

"One day I will prove to them that the value of (BW) stock is more than P100," he said. "I've been a constant buyer... I sold only when I needed funds."

Why is he coming out with his accusations against Wealth Securities, et al only at this time, five months after the selldown?

"I'm a very private person," he explained. "I don't want to face the cameras. I don't want to be interviewed."

But now he has a company -- and his reputation -- to save. "I will not let go of the (BW) shares," he said. "I fell in love with the company."

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I don't know if it was deliberate, but Yulo invited journalists to a meeting on the same day that Tan met the press. Like Tan, the PSE is engaged in damage control.

Yulo emphasized that the PSE report, which Sen. Raul Roco leaked to the press, was not the cause of the recent flight of foreign funds from the stock market.

Rather, the report "confirmed the perception that there is no level playing field," he said. "It is not the investment (flight) that is causing the economy to go down."

What -- or who -- is the cause? You can't trap this guy. "Maybe all of us are to blame," he said.

And you can't make Tan talk about his ties with his friend, President Erap. Following an effort to get him to say when he first met the President, Tan only flashed a rare smile and said thanks.

Few people expect anyone to get punished or the stock market to be cleaned up after this mess, but the PSE, Yulo said, is trying. (More about this in my next column.)

When does Yulo expect investor confidence to return? In 2004? "Your guess is as good as mine," he said.