Thursday, December 20, 2007
Phone e-loads case gets sent to court
THE Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor has ordered the filing of separate criminal charges against the president of Smart Communications Inc. and three others for the allegedly unlawful deactivation of electronic phone load credits bought by a Cebu-based distributor.
City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon, upon the recommendation of Assistant City Prosecutor Victor Laborte, found probable cause to indict Napoleon Nazareno, who also sits as the chief executive officer of the telecommunications giant.
Nazareno will be charged with estafa and violations of Republic Act 8484, otherwise known as the Access Devices Regulation Act, together with Danilo Mojica, Florante Jimenez and Robert Galang before the Regional Trial Court (RTC).
The Cebu City-based Integrated Distribution Network Inc., represented by businessman Salvador Gonzalez, lodged the complaint against Smart.
In their complaint, they accused the firm of illegally canceling some P14 million worth of electronic credits that they bought for re-sale to their sub dealers.
The electronic load credits, commonly referred to as e-loads, were part of a P379-million compromise agreement, reached on Oct. 4, 2006, to settle Smart Communications’ P14-million payable to IDNI over a separate advertising transaction.
Mojica, Jimenez and Galang, in their counter-affidavit, confirmed cancelling the electronic loads but said this was because the period given to IDNI to dispose of its supply had lapsed.
Nazareno submitted a separate counter-affidavit and denied any involvement in the transaction. He said he was not even a signatory to whatever deal IDNI had.
“There is enough basis on record to establish probable cause against the respondent for the crimes charged,” Laborte’s resolution read.
Estafa, he explained, penalizes any person who shall defraud another by unfaithfulness or abuse of confidence, false pretenses or fraudulent acts.
According to Laborte, there was nothing on the original Oct. 4, 2006 agreement that bound IDNI to dispose of the electronic loads within a specific period of time.
The Access Devices Regulation Act penalizes the act of “obtaining money or anything of value through the use of an access device with intent to defraud or with intent to gain and fleeing thereafter.”
“When Smart deactivated or captured the remaining loads, IDNI principally and the sub-dealers secondarily were defrauded,” the resolution read. (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (December 20, 2007 issue)
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