Undermining miners

A number of articles have been written of late about the displacement of the original incorporators of a hardly known mining company in Claver, Surigao del Norte.

On the basis of what was written, the original stockholders woke up one morning to discover that their corporation had been creatively subverted by a group of “super majority” stockholders.

To their horror, they discovered that the group was allegedly led by a close relative of the President of the Philippines and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

At first glance, I found it incredible that the Philippine Ambassador to the United States, Jose Manuel Romualdez, could, by remote control, displace the erstwhile controlling majority.

I saw a group holding a rally in front of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources last month demanding that the Office of the President conduct a probe into what could be a scandal in the family.

Early this month, on 4 June to be precise, Rodolfo Javellana Jr., the national president of the United Filipino Consumer and Commuters (UFCC), wrote President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. a strongly worded letter which read in part: “…to bring your relatives to heel, and ask them to leave the government alone in its work.”

This pertained to the alleged involvement of the President’s cousin, Ambassador Romualdez, in the operations of a mining company and allegedly facilitating the approval of a five-year extension of the corporation’s Minerals Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA).

From his base in faraway Washington DC, Ambassador Romualdez denied all allegations.

In the meantime, I received some interesting information about the background of the corporation before the controversial corporate intra-party dispute and some equally interesting events in the imbroglio.

The corporation referred to is the Claver Mineral Development Corp. (CMDC).

The corporation papers sent to me by someone who begged not to be identified for fear of reprisal showed that the firm was officially registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 7 February 1995. The original incorporators were Fe Millari-Ligtas, Jaime E. Ligtas Sr., Celieta A. Catubay, Dennis A. Catubay, and Erlinda D. Mendez.

The story goes that a group acquired a minority share in 2023 and took over the helm of the corporation without the knowledge of the stockholders.

Assuming that is true, it is patently a mortal sin. And if we are to believe Javellana’s narrative, the majority of the stockholders “lost the right to participate in company operations.” Javellana identified the members of the new group as Rizal Balbin, Rene Velarde and Visitacion Magtibay.

The trio, who allegedly represented themselves as the top executives of CMDC, had a meeting with DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga who, on 27 April 2023, allegedly granted the company a five-year MPSA extension.

Records show that CMDC was granted the exclusive right to exploit the nickel deposits in Cagdinal, Claver, Surigao del Norte. If we are to reckon the time CMDC was legally incorporated in 1995, the MPSA might have expired just recently.

From the information volunteered to me, the local government of Claver, which knew who the original incorporators were, deterred the entry into the mining area of security guards who were dispatched by the Balbin group. The local police authorities likewise favored the status quo. This led to a change in the PNP command. Obviously, an unseen hand with persuasive influence was at work.

With the tension getting out of hand, the regional office of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and the local government of Claver issued a cease-and-desist order to the Balbin group.

Nevertheless, the group was able to obtain an Ore Transport Permit and a Mineral Ore Export Permit.

The SEC needs to intervene in this full-blown controversy for it appears that there were bureaucratic shortcuts taken. Major developments need the imprimatur of stockholders but it seems that none of this happened.

At this point, only the denial of Ambassador Romualdez is seen as the response to the allegations that drew him into the controversy. He was appointed the Philippines’ Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America by former President Rodrigo Duterte. His appointment was renewed by President Marcos Jr.