THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dismissed a complaint filed by Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI) against Harbour Centre Port Holdings Inc. (Harbour Holdings) and Petron Corp., the two firms operating the Manila North Harbor, the country’s largest domestic port terminal.
In its decision dated October 12, the SEC said there is a case of forum shopping after Reghis Romero II, representing HCPTI, filed the case with the agency while there are pending cases in the Regional Trial Courts in Manila and Quezon City, where he is seeking the same legal relief.
Romero wants to stop the increase in capital stock in the Manila North Harbour Port Inc. (MNHPI), the operator of North Harbor.
In August last year HCPTI filed the complaint with the SEC to void the increase in capital stock of MNHPI from P1 billion to P3 billion.
Harbour Holdings is represented by Romero’s son Michael Romero, while Petron is majority owned by conglomerate San Miguel Corp.
“We are convinced by the position taken by the respondents that there is clearly an unmitigated forum shopping on the part of the complainant HCPTI,” the SEC said.
It said there is a pending case in the RTC Branch 46 in Manila, where HCPTI is also seeking to void the increase in capital stock in the MNHPI.
“The primordial issue involved is one and the same, i.e., whether the increase of the authorized capital stock is null and void, the ultimate objective of which is the revocation and/or recall of the same, including the suspension of its implementation and the effects thereof.”
It also said it dismissed HCPTI’s case as it failed to include MNHPI, the main subject of the case, in the complaint.
“The basic tenet of due process tells us North Harbour is a party which will stand to be benefited or be injured by the judgment that may be rendered by the SEC,” the SEC said.
The SEC also ruled the SEC’s Company Registration and Monitoring Department (CRMD) did not violate any rules when it approved the increase in capital stock of MNHPI from P1 billion to P3 billion.
“Insofar as the December 15, 2014, letter of Mr. Reghis Romero II alleging intracorporate dispute is concerned, the same parties pertains to the intracorporate controversy in HCPTI and not in MNHPI,” the SEC said.
MNHPI won the 25-year contract to manage, develop and operate the 52-hectare seaport terminal.
San Miguel now owns a combined 78.33 percent in MNHPI after it bought shares in Harbour Holdings through a series of deals.