Senator urges SEC probe of incorporator identities

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian —Senate SMU

MANILA, Philippines — As an outcome of the Senate probe of Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to conduct random checks on corporations to ensure that their registered incorporators are not fictitious.

“The [SEC] should probably conduct random probity check. I know there are a lot of corporations, and I know that because of the ease of doing business [policy] they were not able to check on them one by one. But maybe it’s good to do it even at random, random validation post incorporation so we would know the truth,” he said in a radio interview.

READ: Raided Pogo has ‘ihaw-ihaw,’ veggie vendors as ‘incorporators’

He cited the case of several individuals registered as incorporators of the raided Pogo in Bamban, Tarlac, who turned out to be market vendors and call center agents.

“Also in Bamban, we saw that the names Winnie Lin and Lin Wenyi were used as incorporators. Two names were used in the corporation when we [knew] that it’s just one person. Maybe there are also other similar cases where incorporation papers were used to make it appear that their business was legitimate. But the names were either similar or bogus,” Gatchalian said.

“It’s very easy to incorporate our companies. Just give names, address, you already have a corporation. Just present your deposit as your capital. But the authenticity of the incorporators, that’s [where] the loopholes are. Some were providing fake names or names of those who do not have anything to do with the company,” he said.

Guo arrest possible

Meanwhile, Gatchalian said the Senate may issue an arrest warrant against Bamban Mayor Alice Guo if she fails to attend their hearing again on July 10.

Guo did not show up in the June 26 inquiry of the Senate committee on women apparently because she was “sick and stressed,” according to her lawyer.

“She will be cited in contempt and an arrest warrant may be issued in order to bring her to the Senate. The Senate has power to issue an arrest warrant in order for her to face the senators,” the senator said when asked what would happen if Guo skipped the inquiry on Wednesday.