Corporate fight turns into coup plot
By Alcuin Papa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:39:00 07/04/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Intracorporate wrangling between Japanese and Filipino investors involved in the construction of a beach resort in Marinduque province spawned the fresh attempt to topple the Arroyo administration, documents obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Thursday showed.
The struggle for control of Island Country Resorts Inc. (ICR) between its Japanese and Filipino investors metamorphosed into an attempt to mount a coup d’etat, lawyer Raymond Fortun, counsel for one of the Japanese, said.
Fortun on Thursday filed a complaint for “proposal to commit coup d’etat” against lawyer Homobono Adaza and former military and police officers Colonels Ernie Amboy and Cesar de la Peña, Lt. Col. Oscar Mapalo and Supt. Rafael Cardeño.
The five were arrested Wednesday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Pasig City. Another alleged accomplice, retired Col. Edgardo Tapia, managed to give police the slip and is at large.
Fortun accused the group of trying to extort $4 million from his client, Motonori Sakuma, to fund a coup d’etat. The money was supposed to have been in exchange for solving the company’s problems; instead Adaza and the others tried to blackmail the Japanese, Fortun said.
Blackmail, double-cross
“The group was supposed to aid my Japanese clients in resolving their differences with their Filipino principals. Instead they turned it around. You may call it blackmail or a double cross,” Fortun told reporters at Camp Crame, general headquarters of the Philippine National Police.
Fortun in his affidavit said he was designated ICR legal counsel in December 2007. At the time, Sakuma, an ICR consultant, asked him how the company could solve its problems related to the delayed construction of the Buenavista Island resort in Buenavista, Marinduque, which was funded by Japanese investors brought in by Sakuma.
Fortun said he advised Sakuma the construction could be speeded up by replacing the five Filipino incorporators, two of whom were Manuel Copon, the president, and Emmanuel Galdo, the vice president.
This could be achieved, Fortun said, by executing deeds of assignment to be signed by Copon and Galdo transferring majority ownership of the project to Sakuma’s appointees.
But Copon and Galdo would not sign the deeds of assignment.
On May 15, 2008, Fortun met with Sakuma, Buenavista resort manager Joanne Laurilla and other ICR officers who told the lawyer they had engaged OMT Security Services Inc. to advise them on how to recover control of the resort and effect its opening.
On May 20, Fortun attended a meeting with the OMT people led by a “General” De la Peña, Mapalo and Tapia. Also in attendance were ICR officers.
At the meeting, the OMT group suggested a “Plan A” and a “Plan B” to solve the problem. “Plan A” involved the filing of a labor and tax case against Hermes, the company formed by Copon and Galdo to provide manpower for the resort.
“Plan B” involved getting the National Bureau of Investigation to pick up Copon and Galdo for questioning under the Anti-Dummy Law. Both plans were meant to convince the two to sign the deeds of assignment.
The following day, however, Fortun was told by Laurilla the OMT group had suggested a “Plan C” which involved the Japanese investors raising $4 million to finance a coup d’etat to be staged by OMT’s “friends” in the military.
On May 27, Fortun said he attended another meeting between OMT and ICR. This time Adaza was in attendance.
‘Big project’
Adaza, according to Fortun, suggested they go with the plan to stage a coup. During the meeting, Adaza whispered to Fortun that they were in fact asking for $10 million.
On July 1, Mapalo called Fortun to a meeting at a coffee shop at the Glorietta mall in Makati City. Adaza and Tapia were also there, Fortun said.
“Attorney Adaza told me the OMT was going to concentrate on the ‘big project,’ i.e., the coup d’etat. He said the overthrow of the Arroyo government was imminent in 45 to 60 days and there were two groups poised to stage a coup,” Fortun said.
He said Adaza then apologized and told him OMT was compelled to ask for the money from Sakuma and his investors otherwise Copon and Galdo would be killed and they would “turn him (Sakuma) in” for the crime.
The OMT group told Fortun they had videos, documents and text messages as evidence of the plan.
Fortun said the group offered him the post of justice secretary once a revolutionary government was set up after the Arroyo administration was toppled.
Adaza, Fortun said, even quoted St. Tomas Aquinas that if something was done for a just cause, “everything is moral.”
That evening, Fortun said, he and Sakuma decided to go to the authorities to preempt the plan.
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