OFFICIALS of Megawide’s airport subsidiary, GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), insisted on their innocence and vowed to exhaust all legal remedies to prove their innocence and counter the Anti-Dummy Law charges.
The group issued the statement after posting bail on Friday, Nov. 26, 2021, following the issuance by the Lapu-Lapu City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 68 of the warrants of arrest, despite the timely filing of the Omnibus Motion that sought the dismissal of the case for lack of probable cause and due process, among others.
“The case is now in court. With the help of our legal team, we can finally clear our names and disprove all the baseless allegations against us,” the group said in a press statement.
“We will not allow this case to distract us from our mission of providing first-world services and facilities to passengers of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. We also assure the public that it is business as usual in the country’s award-winning airport terminals,” the group added.
The group said GMCAC transformed Mactan-Cebu International Airport into the Philippines’ only internationally-acclaimed and award-winning airport. The feat was accomplished with a firm adherence to all applicable laws, rules, and regulations, especially since Megawide and GMR are both widely-held publicly-listed companies.
According to reports from national media, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged 15 executives including eight foreign nationals which stemmed from a complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation. These officials named in the arrest warrant are Megawide chief executive officer and chairman Edgar Saavedra, Manuel Louie B. Ferrer, Oliver Y. Tan, JEZ Dela Cruz, Srinivas Bommidala, P. Sripathy, Vivek Singhal, Andrew Acquaah-Harrison, Ravi Bhatnagar, Ravishankar Saravu, Michael Lenane, Sudarshan MD alias Sudarshan Madhav Doddathota, Kumar Gaurav, Magesh Nambiar alias Magesh Perayil Kanneth, and Rajesh Madan.
The DOJ indicted 15 GMCAC based on a complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation. The list included eight foreign nationals who were accused of being involved in the operations of GMCAC “in conspiracy” with Filipino executives.
The Anti-Dummy Law (Commonwealth Act No. 108) seeks to penalize persons and corporations which circumvent foreign equity restrictions. The offender can be: any citizen of the Philippines, or any citizen of any other specific country. The offense includes the act of using the “name” or “citizenship” of a Filipino citizen to be used for the purpose of evading the foreign ownership limitations.