Monday, September 15, 2008 Lopez to Garcia: 'We are ready for anything'
THE patriarch of the Lopez clan said they are prepared for any possible event that may happen between them and Winston Garcia, head of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
"It depends how far they intend to go. We're ready for anything," declared Oscar Lopez, chairman of power retailer Manila Electric Company (Meralco), on the sidelines of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap) awards night Friday.
When pressed what he meant, Lopez refused to further elaborate.
Likewise, he declined to give his reaction on the recent ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) against Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justices Vicente Roxas, who had been discharged by the high court and Jose Sabio, who was suspended for two months due to violations of the canons of Judicial Conduct, bribery attempt, as well as dishonesty among others.
Lopez said they are leaving it up to the court to decide on the case.
"The Supreme Court will decide on the case," he added.
According to Lopez, he'd rather not give any comment on it since there's still an ongoing investigation.
"I haven't finished studying the case," he said.
The sacking of Roxas stemmed from the case on the ownership of Meralco between the Lopez and the GSIS after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the proxy votes be counted in favor of the Lopezes during the stockholders' meeting held last May.
A day after, the SC axed Justice Roxas and the Lopezes filed a case against GSIS including its chief legal counsel Estrella Elamparo.
But Elamparo filed counter-charge against First Philippine Holdings, the majority owner of Meralco and included among others Lopez, president Elpidio Ibañez and Meralco board of directors Eugenio Lopez III, Manuel Lopez, Federico Lopez, Augusto Almeda-Lopez, Thelmo Cunanan, Ernesto Rufino Jr., Peter Garrucho Jr., Cesar Bautista, Oscar Hilado, Vicente Paterno, Washington Sycip and Artemio Panganiban, a retired chief justice.
GSIS owns over a 22-percent stake in Meralco while the Lopez family controls the majority. (MSN/Sunnex)
