Wanted Fujitsu execs placed on Interpol list due to Lopez land deal

The top Japanese executives of a shuttered Fujitsu factory have been ordered placed on the Interpol watchlist following the double-sale of their 20-hectare factory in the First Philippine Industrial Park in Batangas.

Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Elpidio Celis, in an April 30 order, directed the National Bureau of Investigation to place on the so-called Interpol “red notice” Fujitsu Computer Product president Shiro Ogata, chairman Hiroshi Nakamura, Junichi Sato and Tomoji Sato, who are all charged with estafa along with their three Filipino executives.

The Fujitsu executives are accused of swindling a local property company following their 2009 acceptance of its P150-million offer, only to renege and resell the same property to the Lopez-controlled developer, First Philippine, for a much lower price of P110 million.

According to the complaint, First Philippine thereafter carved out six hectares of the contested 20 hectares and re-sold the smaller portion to Hoya Glass Disk Philippines for P896 million.

According to the complaint, the original buyer, Necisito Sytengco of Berny Realty Developer Corp., had already given a P15-million downpayment to Fujitsu and had even made initial repairs on the shuttered factory, when the Japanese executives U-turned and scuttled the deal.

In their defense, Fujitsu claimed that First Philippine had exercised its right of first refusal on the contested property, although it was not clear why Fujitsu accepted the muchlower offer from the Lopez company.

Fujitsu also returned the P15 million downpayment, which Berny Realty refused to accept.

The broker, Joey Radovan of CB Richard Ellis, who had been gifted with a Rolex watch by Berny Realty for negotiating the first sale, was also charged with estafa.

The American country manager of CB Richard Ellis, Rick Santos, was dropped from the list of the accused for lack of evidence.

The Japanese executives are said to all have been recalled to Tokyo.

Golez finds a new jewel

Remember former Bacolod Rep. Anthony Golez Jr., who was once was in the cross-hairs of Senator Aquilino Pimentel III?

The former congressman has found a new jewel, this time arguably less controversial and more profitable.

Golez is now the president and chief executive of Filipinas Tectonic Safety Systems Corp., which distributes Japan-made earthquake recording systems for buildings.

It is not clear how the former medical doctor and legislator has been inveigled to venture into the meteorological retail business, but what has become apparent is the ex-congressman, who is rumored to be itching to reclaim the same Bacolod seat in the 2016 elections, is well-wired to the Department of Public Works and Highways.

How so? Well, DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson issued only mid-March the implementing rules requiring every building and condominium in the country to install earthquake recording instruments. By April, Golez was already pitching his P9-million accelerograph and intensity meter package to a number of Makati and Fort condos.

Golez apparently is one of the few who have the first-mover advantage on the new government rule mandating that all structures in the country, whether tall or short, should have their respective earthquake recording paraphernalia.

The seismic recording and instrumentation machines are used to set off alarms at specified earthquake intensity levels and cause automatic switch-offs for gas and power lines and also elevators. And their recorded data are used for the postearthquake evaluation of buildings as well.

The downside for such disaster preparedness? The imported machines cost at least P3 million each, with the expense eventually passed on, in the case of residential condos, to unit owners.

Under the Singson order, all buildings 50 meters tall or higher should have three of such paired machines, one to be installed at the lowest floor, another at the mid-level and a third pair at the rooftop.

Buildings below 50 meters are required to install one machine at the lowest floor.

Like fire extinguishers, the recording accelerographs must be inspected annually by the local building official, the absence or non-functioning of which is ground for the withholding of the building’s occupancy permit.

Dee-or-die mode for Alliance Select

Despite painting last year an optimistic turn-around scenario, listed Alliance Select was forced last week to eat humble pie and announce that its 2014 losses had widened to $17 million.

New president and chief executive Raymond See also disclosed that the company had essentially written off their three fishing vessels valued at $7.8 million, a pet venture of his chairman Jonathan Dee.

In all, the tuna-and-smoke salmon exporter had burned about $40 million cash in the last few years, including the $13 million cash injection of a new shareholding group associated with Security Bank’s Frederick Dy.

“These provisions were painful, but critically needed,” See said. “And we determined it is best for the company and its shareholders’ interest that they be addressed immediately rather than allow them to fester and become impediments to our performance goals.”

Given the losses, the company is asking the shareholders to pump in another P1.5 billion to double Alliance Select’s authorized capital to P3 billion.

Heard through the grapevine

Lawyer Lorna Kapunan may run for the Senate in 2016 under the Jojo Binay slate, and the looming possibility of her candidacy is perhaps more than just a coincidence that she will have to resign from a listed company this week to finally appease new Comelec chairman Andres Bautista, whose Supreme Court nomination Kapunan had vigorously opposed.

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