The custodian of the defunct Philippine Industries Corporation of the Philippines is seeking assistance from the Department of Trade and Industry to help recover some, if not all, the back pays, benefits and capitalization lost because of alleged looting and other illegal activities surrounding the proposed rehabilitation program.
Court-appointed rehabilitation receiver Francisco Buencamino said about P800 million worth of machineries and equipment were forcibly taken out by “robbers”.
“I wrote to DTI for them to be aware that there is the possibility of loss of investor confidence in the general investments climate in the country, as far as foreign investments is concerned,” he said, adding that a foreign entity invested to transform the old paper mill in Mindanao into a modern and functional paper manufacturing facility.
He said of the looted machineries and equipment, about P500 million equipment represented capital investment shared by a third party foreign investor, which was supposed to modernize the paper mill as part of the rehabilitation plan for PICOP.
“This has been covered into scrap metal and materials by robbers. They scrapped everything from crushers to digesters, and they even took out the air-conditioning system. We had the plan laid out and it’s been two years that we’re trying to speed up the rehabilitation of the paper plant,” Buencamino said.
He noted the lack of support from the host community and from the local police force.
Buencamino said Land Bank of the Philippines also had exposure of P2 billion.
“I’ve written a separate letter to LandBank president Cecille Borromeo asking why the bank has not given a pffft of what has happened and what is happening to PICOP, which was the biggest and only integrated forest and paper mill in the country,” Buencamino said.
Buencamino said he would not allow the facility to be foreclosed and then liquidated. “How about the 12,000 shareholders, 8,000 employees, 2,500 claimants and other creditors who should also have their share,” he said.
He said he wrote a similar letter to the Department of Finance to apprise the government of the latest events at PICOP. He said LandBank would also face losses if it failed to protect the assets.
Buencamino said the current assessment the land, the most valuable asset of the paper company, is worth over P1 billion. The machineries that were lost also cost another over a P1 billion, he said.
San Miguel Group earlier acquired PICOP and planned to revive the paper mill.