Romero dad-son war spreads to Marikina RTC

Michael Romero

From Pasig City to Quezon City and Manila, the father-and-son legal battle between Reghis Romero II and Michael Romero for ownership of Harbor Center Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI) has also reached Marikina City.

In the latest complaint, a man who has had no stable employment claimed he was asked to sign company documents pertaining to Michael Romero’s shares in the P5-billion port facility in Tondo, Manila, in the capacity of corporate secretary.

In his petition for injunction and damages filed in the Marikina Regional Trial Court on Friday against the younger Romero and former HCPTI executives, Mario Saycon said he received payment in exchange for his signing of the company documents.

Sometime in December 2013, Saycon said, he received P25,000 after affixing his signature on a document which turned out to be HCPTI’s general information sheet that was eventually submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 26, 2014.

Reghis Romero

Saycon said he agreed to sign the document since he was unemployed at the time and was assured there would be no complication.

He said he was also given P10,000 when he signed another document, a secretary’s certificate of board resolution dated March 15, 2014, which indicated that a special meeting of HCPTI board directors and stockholders took place on Feb. 25, 2014.

While the signed documents were notarized, Saycon said he “did not appear before any notary public.” He added that he was never appointed  HCPTI corporate secretary and he did not possess any of the company’s books or records.

In his affidavit, Saycon said someone had told him that he was facing a big problem for what he did. This made him decide “to tell the truth.”

The complaint contains a prayer for a temporary restraining order (TRO) and also named as respondents former HCPTI officials Edwin Joseph Galvez, Edwin Jeremillo and lawyer Uella Vida Mancenido-Gayo, as well as the law firm Paredes, Garcia & Golez.

Saycon’s complaint was raffled off to Judge Felix Reyes of Marikina RTC Branch 272.

It was filed days after the younger Romero scored a legal victory in another court. On May 6, Judge Silvino Pampilo of the Manila RTC Branch 25 ruled that Michael Romero’s group was the owner of HCPTI.

The Manila court ruling contradicted that handed down on May 5 by Quezon City RTC Branch 97 Judge Bernelito Fernandez, who issued a TRO against Michael’s group on its use of deeds to claim ownership of HCPTI.

In Dec. 18, 2014, a Pasig RTC ordered Reghis Romero to return control of the facility to his son. The following day, some 100 armed men approached the facility and allegedly opened fire on its security personnel.

A spokesperson for the younger Romero said they were not commenting on Saycon’s case as it is now in court.–With a report from Miguel R. Camus