Sherwin Gatchalian

On Wednesday, at the last plenary session before the May elections, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian delivered a stinging speech detailing “red flags” that the energy committee found as it scrutinized the sale of Chevron Malampaya LLC’s 45-percent stake in the Malampaya deepwater gas-to-power project off Palawan. He said Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and 11 of his subordinates may have committed graft for supposedly showing partiality in approving the sale of Chevron’s stocks to Udenna Corp. Malampaya despite its negative P6.9-billion capitalization. The Senate adopted the speech in a resolution urging the Ombudsman to prosecute Cusi and several other energy officials, who the senator also asked to resign. Gatchalian later accompanied the lawyers who brought the resolution to the Ombudsman. But he also found himself defending his report against criticism, mainly from President Duterte who dismissed the committee’s recommendations as mere “political antics” of some senators out to pin down Udenna boss Dennis Uy, one of his biggest campaign donors in 2016. Davao-based tycoon Dennis Uy landed in hot water after Dito CME Holdings Corp. aborted an P8-billion public fundraising exercise despite receiving payments from stockholders. It’s uncommon for a prominent business personality to anger both regulator and minority shareholders over an ordinary transaction. Uy’s Dito CME succeeded when it pulled out its stock rights offering, which suffered from poor demand from large institutional funds. The unprecedented event prompted Philippine Stock Exchange president Ramon Monzon to warn future deal brokers to ensure such offers do not fail, especially in such an embarrassing manner. Dito CME would rather dismiss the event, blaming the coronavirus pandemic and the US Central Bank (although other companies have successfully raised money without any problems). The money is supposed to finance the ongoing rollout of Dito Telecommunity, Uy’s venture with China Telecom. Dito Telecommunity said the failed offer would not cause problems since it could still tap huge loans from Chinese banks and other foreign lenders.