‘We’ll get back what is ours’

HONOLULU—Chief Justice Renato Corona, whether found guilty or acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial, along with his wife Cristina and daughter Carla, will be made liable for usurping Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. (BGEI) from its stockholders and squandering its finances, according to an heir of the corporation’s majority stockholders.

“He and Cristina and Carla will not be off the hook after the impeachment (trial). We will not let this go away. We will get back what is rightfully ours,” said Ana Basa, second of nine children of Jose Maria Basa III, who was one of the original stockholders of BGEI.

Corona is also facing forfeiture proceedings in the Office of the Ombudsman for unexplained wealth.

Speaking from Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday (Sunday in the Philippines), Ana called up this reporter here and talked about her family’s course of action against the Coronas with respect to the BGEI ownership in light of revelations in the Senate trial about what really happened in the corporation.

Ana said the Coronas probably did not expect the Basa family and the rest of her relatives to fight back after years of prosecution and persecution allegedly inflicted on them by the Corona couple given the Chief Justice’s position in the judiciary.

Lately, US-based members of the Basa family have been consulting with their lawyers both in the United States and in the Philippines on their possible course of action against those responsible for the pillage of the corporation.

Challenge

Ana said the Basa family would challenge the transfer of BGEI ownership to her niece, Carla, for a measly sum of P28,000 and the sale of a BGEI property in Sampaloc, Manila, by the Corona couple to the city government of Manila.

Ana said her family had been informed by its lawyers that all three Coronas, the regional trial judge and the court sheriff who  executed the order to garnish her parents’ majority shares in BGEI without the Basa family’s knowledge and allowed their transfer to Carla were all liable under the law.

Following the death of her husband Jose Ma. Basa II, Rosario Guidote Basa formed BGEI on May 30, 1961, and served as treasurer. The shares were divided between her and five children and their spouses, namely Sister Concepcion, Mario Basa and wife Cecilia, Asuncion Basa-Roco and husband Vicente, Sister Flory, and Jose Ma. Basa III and wife Raymunda.

Asuncion and Vicente were Cristina’s parents, while Jose Ma. III and Raymunda were Ana’s parents. Concepcion was corporate secretary, while Vicente, being a lawyer, was made president.

How feud began

The feud between the families of Jose Ma. III and Asuncion began when Rosario and Mario died in 1983. At that time, the tenants at the BGEI building had complained to Jose Ma. III that the building was falling apart, but the management was not addressing the issue, Ana said.

She said the stockholders had sent demand letters to inspect corporate books, but Cristina instead wanted the corporation to convene an emergency meeting to resolve all issues involving the tenants’ complaints. Jose Ma. III was dissatisfied and commissioned an independent accounting firm to see if they could make sense of what was going on.

Ana said that some of the audit findings were astounding—one tenant was paying P132,000 annually, but the amount reflected in the book of accounts only showed P124,000, outrageous salaries of those running the corporation and exorbitant fees being paid to certain firms hired to provide services.

In 1986, Cristina, acting as assistant secretary, submitted a general information sheet (GIS) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) questioning whether Sister Concepcion and Sister Flory were actually stockholders. She later claimed in court that she was merely acting on the request of Rosario.

In 1987, a  second demand letter was sent to Vicente and Asuncion by lawyer Michael Laub from Lake Tahoe, Nevada, on behalf of the Basa family, but to no avail.

In 1989,  Jose Ma. III was elected BGEI board chair; Mario, vice president; Sister Concepcion, treasurer; and Melissa Basa (Mario’s daughter), secretary.

Absent at meeting

Vicente and Asuncion were absent at the meeting. A GIS submitted to SEC in 1990 by the new officers showed the BGEI board of directors as follows: Jose Ma. III, Raymunda, Sister Concepcion, Sister Flory, Asuncion and Vicente Roco.

According to Ana, the names of Mario and Cecilia and their heirs no longer appeared because her father had bought their shares, including Cecilia’s bowling alley, making Jose Ma. III and Raymunda the majority owners with more than 90 percent of the shares.

Vicente and Asuncion filed Civil Case Nos. 01-99613 and 01-99620 in the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46, seeking on behalf of BGEI the cancellation and annulment of the stockholders’ meeting that elected Jose as chair.

The SEC then directed the corporation to organize a management committee to oversea BGEI until cases were resolved. Jose Ma. III, Raymunda, Cecilia, and Sisters Flory and Concepcion submitted two names as designated representatives, while Vicente, Asuncion and Cristina did not submit names.

Probate case

Vicente, Asuncion and Cristina likewise filed a probate case, claiming that Rosario still owned 87 percent of BGEI and that Cristina was entitled to 10 percent of the shares through a deed of assignment from her mother, thus leaving only 3 percent of outstanding shares.

But Ana said there was no record in the corporation of Cristina as a stockholder and as a corporate officer.

A writ of preliminary injunction was later issued by the SEC, which ordered the new board officers to refrain from representing themselves as the new management of BGEI until further orders to resolve the dispute.

Acting on the complaints from BGEI tenants, however, the Basas led by Jose Ma. III filed a case of estafa against Cristina for allegedly misappropriating P224,000 in payments to the corporation. They also placed a paid notice to the public in newspapers asking BGEI tenants to refrain from making payments to Cristina until the case was resolved.

The case, however, was dismissed by the city prosecutor’s office.

Humiliated

Feeling humiliated, Cristina struck back. She sued Jose Ma. III, Raymunda, her sisters and other relatives for libel in Manila and Quezon City, and succeeded in getting hold-departure orders against them.

She won the libel case in 1997. A court found Jose Ma. III, Raymunda and Virgilio Macaventa guilty, and awarded Cristina P500,000 for moral damages. Sister Flory, Cecilia and Betsy Tenchavez were acquitted in another case.

In 1993, Vicente died, but Asuncion did not report this to the SEC, Ana said. She claimed that whatever assignment given by Vicente to his daughter Cristina as administrator in his capacity as BGEI president should be null and void after his death.

In 1995, Asuncion abandoned her position in BGEI and moved to California where she died. Sister Concepcion also passed away.

The SEC served a show-cause letter to BGEI for failure to file its GIS for 1981 to 1985, 1987 to 1988, and 1991, and financial statements up to 1991.

The SEC also issued a certification that the corporation’s records did not show any board resolution authorizing Cristina to represent and collect rental payment for and in behalf of the corporation, Ana said.

Concepcion died in 1995, Jose Ma. III in 2003 and Asuncion in 2006.

Writ of execution

Of the two counts of libel in which Ana’s parents were convicted, one court awarded Cristina P500,000 in damages. Ana said her parents were convicted for failure to attend the promulgation as they were in the United States.

A writ of execution was issued in 2001, enabling Cristina to levy her parents’ shares in BGEI to cover the P500,000 monetary award in her favor.

At the senate impeachment court on May 8, Sheriff Joseph Bisnar of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court  Branch 216 said under oath that he delivered both the writ of execution and garnishment on the same day they were issued at an address provided by Cristina.

Ana said her parents never received any notice because it was issued to the wrong address—the house of Asuncion Roco, nicknamed Monina and Cristina’s mother.

“That was the address of Tita Monina. That’s the house of Cristina’s parents. She grew up there. That’s not our house,” Ana said.

Sole bidder

Bisnar, who implemented the public auction and sale of shares of Jose  Ma. III and Raymunda in BGEI in September 2003, said Cristina’s daughter, Carla Corona-Castillo, was the only participant in the auction and bought the shares of Jose Ma. III and Raymunda [representing 91 percent of BGEI] for P28,000.

“Dad would have never allowed BGEI shares to be auctioned off because that was his promise to my grandmother,” Ana said. “We can afford to buy the shares, but my parents never received any type of notice. [My father] would have figured out another way to pay it.”

Ana believes that with the impeachment trial of Corona, her family has a fighting chance to pursue cases in court against the Coronas “without obstruction and harassment,” unlike before when Corona was close to two former Presidents—Fidel Ramos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Our lawyers said all three Coronas, especially Cristina, are liable to the stockholders for gross negligence and bad faith in directing the affairs of BGEI and for allowing the shares to go for a mere P28,000. They said she is also guilty of acquiring personal or pecuniary interest in conflict with her duty as a trustee,” Basa said.

Ana said her family was relieved that people have come to realize about the “true colors” of the Coronas because of the impeachment.

“You know what they did to us. It shows they have no morals. If they can hurt us, if they can do this to our little family like what my aunt, Sister Flory, said, ‘What more to the rest of the nation?’” she said.

The sale of the BGEI property in Sampaloc itself without the knowledge of Jose’s heirs, Ana said, was highly questionable since up to now, there was still no decision on the probate case that Cristina had filed against them.

There’s still a pending case regarding this, she said, because the stockholders’ right to inspect the corporate books had been denied and violated even with demand letters sent to Asuncion and Cristina.

Other properties

Ana said other BGEI properties in the same area that were levied by the Coronas were in the name of her father. So, up to now the Coronas cannot sell these properties, she said.

“I wanna ask Cristina: ‘Are you satisfied? Did that make you happy? You know the reason for all these?’ To us, it can’t just be money because she also has money. They (Coronas) are just out to hurt us because she was shamed by Dad when he filed an estafa [case] against her. She could not take it and so that’s her mission in life—to make my parents miserable,” Ana said.

Ana insisted that Cristina could not have done the manipulations without the help of the Chief Justice.

All the legal troubles caused by the Coronas on the BGEI owners, she said, had prompted the three Basa siblings to sell their shares in the company.

“Dad’s siblings said they did not want headaches because Cristina and Renato were making trouble, and the tenants were complaining about them so they decided to sell. But Dad instead bought their shares because lola’s wish was for the Basa family to own and control the corporation. That was how our family became the majority stockholders,” Ana said.

Piggery, poultry

Of the five children of Rosario, Ana said her father, the youngest, was the most successful financially because he had a big farm, piggery and poultry.

Concepcion, the eldest, was a nun and was BGEI secretary; Asuncion, Cristina’s mother, was a housewife; Flory is a nun; and Mario was engaged in a bonsai business and was the one who  supplied the famous bonsai to the then Atrium building in Makati.

Ana likewise answered the claim of Corona’s “PR handlers” and lawyers that it was her father who was the one greedy for assigning to himself a property in Libis (Eastwood), Quezon City.

“What title is Cristina talking about? That property in Libis was a gift by my lola to Dad when he graduated with a degree in animal husbandry from the University of California in Davis,” Ana said.

“But Dad paid lola for that property in Libis over a number of years. That’s why it’s in the name of my father. Dad was able to pay because we had a farm. We had poultry and piggery, and he was very successful,” she said.