Official recognition

We write in connection with the letter of Mr. Pitero Reig that was published on the 29 August 2010 edition wherein Mr. Reig questioned certain issues raised by Mr. Federico Pascual in his column Postscript.

First of all, Mr. Reig is not among the legal counsels of Philcomsat Holdings Corporation (“PHC”) and thus, cannot speak for and on behalf of our corporation.

Secondly, contrary to the claim of Mr. Reig, there are no legal impediments to the holding of stockholders’ meetings of PHC. In fact, the annual stockholders’ meeting held on 28 May 2010 was called by the duly authorized and incumbent directors of PHC headed by Ms. Katrina C. Ponce-Enrile in accordance with the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Philippine Stock Exchange (“PSE”). Ms. Concepcion Poblador, who is not part of this group, belongs to the Lokin-Brodett-Locsin-Araneta group who persist on claiming to be PHC’s directors by virtue of their ‘election’ in August 2004. However, such ‘election’ has already been nullified by the Regional Trial Court as early as October 2006 and upheld by the Court of Appeals in September 2008. As a result, the incumbent Ponce-Enrile-led board is officially recognized by the SEC, the PSE, the Department of Justice, the Presidential Commission on Good Government and the Office of the President.

Third, Mr. Reig claims that Atty. Luis K. Lokin Jr. never handled the funds and/or bank accounts of PHC. However, PHC’s corporate and banking records show that Atty. Lokin and Mr. Manuel D. Andal Jr., were signatories to PHC checks and that they signed the checks totaling P7M issued to one “Veronica Nepomuceno”, with a notation “PR for Supreme Court injunction” who nobody in their group later claimed to personally know. Lokin, Poblador and Enrique Locsin cannot evade responsibility for the lost funds of PHC by simply executing a joint affidavit that all expenses, vouchers and checks were verified and approved by Mr. Philip G. Brodett and Mr. Johnny R. Tan since the latter two are members of their group who they worked closely with and who helped arranged and accounted for the hefty emoluments to each group member.

It is unfortunate that while PHC is trying its best to move forward and normalize operations, people like Lokin, Poblador and their lawyers continue to muddle the issues by still claiming to be directors of PHC in order to confuse the general public.

Nevertheless, we thank Mr. Pascual for his continued interest in our Corporation and his advocacy helps remind the many stockholders of PHC of the irregularities committed by Lokin-Locsin-Brodett-Araneta-Poblador group that were uncovered by the Senate and the House of Representatives during their respective investigations of the anomalies in the Philcomsat Group of Companies.