LAWYERS expect a long-drawn process in the rehabilitation case of South Korean shipyard operator Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co.-Philippines (HHIC-Phil) Inc., as claims against it have risen to more than P40 billion. The court will have to verify the list of claims and appoint a new court receiver.
There were a total of P48 billion in claims from creditors and suppliers received by the court as of Friday, February 8, when the first hearing was held by the Olongapo Regional Trial Court, according to Stefani C. Saño, the current court-appointed receiver.
Sano said the court will rule on the new receiver by next week following his resignation. “I resigned so the process will be expedited,” he said.
One of the creditor banks questioned Saño’s role as he was nominated by Hanjin. Saño was previously a director of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and was its former senior deputy administrator, heading the business and investment group.
At the first hearing of the rehabilitation petition Hanjin filed at the Olongapo Regional Trial Court on Friday, a battery of lawyers from the creditor banks and suppliers was present. The proceedings were focused on the list of creditors, as well as the nominees for the new receiver.
“It is the task of the receiver to ascertain if all the claims are accurate. Until next week, we will know if there’s a new receiver but there will still be a transition,” Saño said.
Hanjin owes local banks some $412 million, and another $700 million is owed to overseas creditors, mainly from Korea Development Bank (some $100 million); and its parent, the South Korean firm Hanjin Heavy Industries.
“There are also other creditors and some have debts not reaching $1 million. But they are just so many,” lawyer Jose F. Justiniano said.
Justiniano represents ship engine supplier SDX Heavy Industries, to which Hanjin owes about $30 million.
There were reports that Hanjin still has to default on its payments of its debts with the local banks, but Justiniano said the South Korean company already defaulted on his client.
“We are just in the first stage of the rehabilitation process. We are still determining if this company can still be rehabilitated or not. But for the meantime, they asked for the courts to stop all payments until such time that its business returns to normal,” he said.
Hanjin last month filed for corporate rehabilitation to seek court relief from paying its debt. Its local creditor banks were Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Land Bank of the Philippines, BDO Unibank Inc. and Bank of the Philippine Islands.
According to its plan, Hanjin will fire another 3,000 workers by next week, leaving only about 300 workers by March, to maintain its facilities.
At a standstill
The South Korean shipyard in Subic Bay, meanwhile, is now on a standstill, leaving the establishments—sari-sari stores and dormitories for the worker—near the facilities idle.
Hanjin also had to let go thousands of its workers since last year, and most of them were offered higher compensation than the usual one month salary for every year of stay in the company.
Opportunities
As a result of Hanjin’s impending shipyard closure, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority held a jobs fair on Saturday at the freeport zone. Wilma T. Eisma, SBMA chairman and administrator, said the activity was coined initially to help the displaced Hanjin workers, but it was later extended to also other jobless skilled and non-skilled people living in Central Luzon.
The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is constructing a P13.16-billion National Government Administrative Center in Clarkfield in Pampanga. The said facilty, constructed by AlloyMTD, a consortium of local and regional firms, will host this year’s Southeast Asian Games.
AlloyMTD President Patrick Nicholas David said they are looking at the displaced Hanjin workers as they are now short of thousands of manpower since the facilities are being rushed for November’s games.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes