spot_img
28.4 C
Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Megawide’s losing streak

- Advertisement -

“Rough patch?”

 

It looks like Megawide is really in a rough patch these days. It has gone through a triple-whammy losing streak that can seriously undermine its credibility as a viable player in big-ticket projects.

After losing the NAIA Rehabilitation project, Megawide is in danger of getting the boot in its joint-venture deal for the operation of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport following the indictment of its officials by the justice department for violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.

The DoJ declared that the GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. joint venture was not majority Filipino-owned and that the foreign nationals Andrew Acquaah-Harrison, Ravi Bhatnagar, Ravishankar Saravu, Michael Lenane, Sudarshan Madhav Doddathota, Kumar Gaurav, Magesh Nambiar, and Rajesh Madan acted as executives, managers or employees of the corporation “in the guise of being advisors, experts and/or technical personnel.”

The DoJ said the foreigners conspired with the GMCAC officers and board members Srinivas Bommidala, P. Sripathy, Vivek Singhal, Manuel Louie Ferrer, Edgar Saavedra, Oliver Tan, and Jez de la Cruz.

- Advertisement -

If the case prospers and it is proven Megawide violated the Constitution for allowing foreigners to run its business at the MCIA, the government could forfeit its deal with the government and lose its biggest cash cow. Even its foreign partners could be deported and permanently banned from entering the Philippines.

Megawide’s NAIA debacle and its indictment for its MCIA venture have caused catastrophic results that despite desperate damage control measures, shares of the publicly listed Megawide Construction Corporation have been on a deep dive. After the indictment of its officials last October 15, its stock price dipped by 8.20 percent.

Early this year, Megawide was already about to clinch a contract to rehabilitate NAIA in a deal similar to its MCIA project, but it was scrapped by the Department of Transportation after lawmakers questioned its financial capability to contract.

Another brewing controversy that potentially spells disaster for Megawide is its Joint Venture Agreement involving the development of the Carbon Market in Cebu. Despite a massive PR campaign to promote the Carbon market project, vendors are putting up a fight to stop it.

Last August, a broad alliance of various multi-sectoral groups filed a petition seeking to nullify the Megawide deal. This has become a political issue and the future of the Carbon project hangs by the thread with its primary supporter, Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella going on leave for health reasons.

Without Labella doing the necessary spadework to counter the strong public lobby to stop the Carbon project, there is a chance that like the NAIA project, this could end up into another catastrophe for Megawide.

-o0o-

Ambiguous.

Lately, I have been receiving messages from Toyota Financial Services regarding my unpaid balance for my car which I acquired through them. This arose not from my unwillingness to settle my monthly amortization, but from their decision to suspend collection from my account for three months in adherence to the Bayanihan Act which was enacted last year.

Anyway, I was not aware they did not collect from me for three months last year as I authorized them to continue deducting the payment due me from my account. I was actually expecting to have fully paid my car as of May this year had they not given me a notice regarding my three-month unpaid amortization.

Asking for a copy of my full statement of account, I noticed that while they indeed did not deduct any amortization from my bank account for three months from March to May last year, Toyota Financial Services charged me a penalties totaling P22,467,20 broken down as follows:8/21/20 – P16,819.32; 8/28/20 – P779.77; 8/28/20 – P556.61; 9/21/20 – P3,205.91; and 11/17/21 – P1,105.61, which are I believed are totally uncalled for as I have always been on time with my payment (I was on an auto debit arrangement with my bank).

I raised the issue with TFS through email and while they “seem” to acknowledge their mistake, they could not give me a clear answer on what they intend to do to resolve the matter.

In TFS’ first email in response to my query, they wrote, “Please disregard the penalty reflecting on Statement of account, this will be subject for adjustment.”

So I asked them to send me the adjusted computation so I can settle the balance, which I am more than willing to do.

Again, they replied with another ambiguous response telling “to settle the last 3 remaining payment (1) for us to request for waiver.”

First they told me they would adjust the statement of account to be subject for adjustment. Then when I ask for the adjusted computation, they will tell me I have to pay the balance first before they can request for a waiver. They could not give me any categorical answer as to how they will deal with the penalties they erroneously charged me. Since they could not adjust the computation, could they tell me or assure me I would be refunded and how they intend to do it.

Just be specific. No more vague answers.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles