Steel firm protests CA ruling

The bankrupt Steel Corp. of the Philippines has sought the help of Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr. to look into what it claimed was the “lack of transparency and indecent haste” of the court’s Special Fourth Division in upholding Banco de Oro’s rival position regarding the Batangas-based steel manufacturing firm’s P7-billion rehabilitation plan.

In a letter-complaint to Reyes, SteelCorp.’s counsel Nonnatus Chua said the corporation was “completely flabbergasted” when it was informed on Feb. 21 that the court had nullified the Batangas trial court’s earlier ruling compelling BDO to disclose how much it had acquired the steel corporation’s debt papers from the now-defunct Equitable-PCI Bank.

“Once (BDO) discloses the (amount), we could buy those debt papers from the new creditors (BDO) at the same price. We are given that right under Article 1634 of the New Civil Code,” Chua told the Inquirer.

“The purpose of our petition is to help the rehabilitation of (SteelCorp) since our debt level will be drastically reduced,” he said.

The counsel for SteelCorp also asked Reyes to order a reraffle of the case and “vacate” the Feb. 13 resolution penned by Associate Justice Normandie Pizarro which, he claimed, “brings shame and disrepute to the venerable Court of Appeals… and the entire judiciary.”

Chua claimed there were “irregularities and procedural shortcuts” by which Pizzaro and Associate Justices Rebecca de Guia-Salvador and Ramon Bato Jr. ruled in favor of BDO, a commercial bank owned by shopping mall magnate Henry Sy.

“(I)n its inordinate rush to judgment and railroad the decision, the (Pizzaro’s division) committed procedural shortcuts and irregularities that are in clear violation of this court’s internal rules,” the lawyer said in his letter, a copy of which was shown the Inquirer.

Chua said the appellate court’s decision nullified an Oct. 28, 2009, ruling of a Batangas regional trial court which granted SteelCorp’s petition compelling BDO to disclose the purchase price for its debt papers.

The lawyer said the corporation suspects that Equitable-PCI “assigned” some P2 billion of the steel manufacturer’s debts to the bank “at a discounted price.

Equitable-PCI merged with BDO Universal Bank in 2007.

Before it was placed under financial rehabilitation in 2006, SCP was supplying almost half of the demand for steel roofing and GI sheets nationwide.

SteelCorp, owned by businessman Abeto Uy, has been under receivership and rehabilitation reportedly after suffering heavy losses since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.