NBI ASKED: PROBE P1-B BANK DEALS

A lawyer has asked the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate how an agribusiness export company, Marsman-Drysdale Corp., used one of his dormant companies to facilitate a series of unexplained and possibly fraudulent bank transactions worth $21 million (about P1 billion) from 2007 to 2018.

Antero Sison Jr., owner of Oro del Mar Aquatic Resources Inc. (Odmar), told the NBI that he learned about the Marsman officials’ transactions only when he retired early this year and that he was shocked to find the staggering amount of money that passed through his company.

“I am alarmed by the magnitude of the amount deposited and withdrawn in the name of my dormant corporation, which I believed might expose me to money laundering and possible tax evasion,” Sison said in a letter to the NBI on May 17.

‘Abuse of trust’

He said these transactions could possibly be “illegal, fraudulent and/or done with criminal intent… in breach and abuse of my trust and confidence when I allowed them to use my corporation for legitimate purposes.”

Lawyer Nathaniel Ramos, officer in charge of the NBI’s antigraft division, said a probe was underway and that those named by Sison were asked to submit their counteraffidavits.

He said the bank was also asked to submit the transaction records of the accounts in question.

But Marsman, in a statement to the Inquirer, called Santos’ claim “wild and false” and said it would cooperate with the NBI in its investigation.

Lawyer of 40 years

“The Marsman Group of Companies has acted and will always act within the strict confines of the law. In fact, this is what our lawyer of over 40 years, Atty. Antero Sison Jr., has always assured Marsman, its board of directors and officers regarding the transactions he now casts doubt on,’’ Marsman said.

“It is thus surprising and shocking that after Atty. Sison was separated from Marsman this year, he started making these wild and false accusations against the very corporations where he was no less than president, board member and tax counsel,” it added.

Sison said Odmar was incorporated as a family corporation in 1987 to operate a farm in Cadiz, Negros Occidental, that exported prawn to Japan. He said he stopped Odmar’s operations in 1995 because he could not compete with prawn farms in neighboring Asian countries that were subsidized by their governments.

Sison said Odmar became inactive and dormant until Marsman’s vice president, Eduardo B. Castillo asked him in late 2007 “if I had a corporation which was inactive that he could use to facilitate transactions without directly involving the Marsman Drysdale Group of Companies and its affiliates.”

Sison was president of Marsman from 2006 until January this year when he retired.

Marsman describes itself as a “diversified Philippine-based synergy of companies with interests in the export of agribusiness products, medical equipment, travel and tourism, and mining.”

Marsman’s 1,000-hectare banana farm in Davao produced the local industry’s highest production record of 6,000 million boxes in 1999. It also has a mango plantation in Guimaras.

BPI accounts

Sison said after he agreed, Castillo instructed Marsman lawyer Enrique Dimaano to prepare secretary’s certificates for the opening of three foreign currency accounts in the name of Odmar with the Bank of Philippine Islands Ayala-Paseo branch.

Sison, in his affidavit, said the authorized signatories, were himself as Odmar president; Castillo, and Jesus Pedro S. Adan II, vice president and chief financial officer.

However, in 70 bank transactions or so that took place from 2007 to 2018, Sison said Marsman never informed him what the transactions were about.