'Corporate Gods' Offered 

Wilson Gamboa, Sr. P200M Bribe

 Negros Daily Bulletin Headlines - Wednesday 

October 26, 2011,  Negros Local News

By Gil Alfredo B. Severino

"We would no longer eat paksiw na bangus in our favorite carinderia. We would not be sipping cheap coffee from our favorite fast food joint," wrote Philip M. Lustre, Jr. as eulogy for the late opposition Assemblyman Wilson Gamboa, Sr. last Friday, referring to the P200 million bribe money from the "corporate gods" running the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Corporation (PLDT) then.

Lustre is a freelance writer and privy to the complaint filed by Gamboa, Sr. against PLDT deemed to be more than 40 percent owned by the alleged "Suharto money" represented by the Hongkong-based First Pacific Holding, Inc., therefore violated the 60-40 ownership structure in favor of the Filipinos as stipulated in the 1987 Constitution.

He claimed that the so-called PLDT "corporate gods" offered bribe money of P200 million through a Negrense intermediary but the "good fortune" on the other hand, "...smiled in our favor. Last June 28, the Supreme Court, after four years of deliberations and a vote of 10-3, has decided to sustain our position that common shareholdings, not a combination of common and preferred shareholdings as what the PLDT had been insisting, is the basis of the computation to determine the foreign equity in a public utility firm."

"Ironically, the offers came at a time when doctors gave the diagnosis that his liver ailment was turning for the worse. In hindsight, Wilson could have just taken the money and used it to buy his health back," Lustre’s eulogy read.

The Negrense intermediary was fumigating at Wilson, asking if he was crazy to reject a 300 percent increase of bribe money from P50 million to P200 million.

It did not come as a surprise for Lustre; he knew Wilson back in Martial Law days as "Unmindful of the threats and perils and a man of imposing built and stentorian voice, spoke on the many ills that beset the nation during those difficult days."

Wilson’s virtues of probity, integrity, simplicity, and humility were the reasons, his eulogy read, why he was approached back in the late 2006 to look into the possibility of filing a petition for declaratory relief concerning the government sale of a big chunk of shareholdings of the telecommunications giant, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, (PLDT), to First Pacific Ltd.

Lustre’s eulogy ended describing Wilson Gamboa, Sr.’s trust relationship with journalists of his kind, "Wilson Gamboa is a man of tremendous respect for a dear friend because he disclosed everything to me in full details. He did not work or operate at my back.

Loyalty is important. Trust is paramount for him."*

PLDT-Digitel deal needs Congress approval - Lawmaker

By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star) Updated October 28, 2011 12:00 am

MANILA, Philippines - The impending merger between Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Digital Telecommunications (Phils.) Inc. (Digitel) still needs congressional approval, Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said yesterday.

He said PLDT’s and Digitel’s respective franchises require them to report to Congress any change in ownership so that the House and the Senate could approve such change.

He said the company emerging from the fusion of PLDT and Digitel cannot use the legislative privileges granted to the two partners and would need a new congressional franchise.

Castelo urged the House committee on legislative franchises to hold hearings to ensure compliance with the reportorial and approval requirements, and to determine whether the merger would create a monopoly and stifle competition among telecom players.

PLDT is the country’s largest telecom player, while Digitel is the third largest, behind Globe Telecom. The merged PLDT-Digitel will corner 70 percent of the market.

On Wednesday, PLDT disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has approved its deal with Digitel.

Castelo also criticized NTC for its alleged precipitous approval of PLDT’s acquisition of Digitel, saying the agency should have awaited the Supreme Court’s final decision on the issue of PLDT’s ownership.

He said the High Court has ruled that PLDT is a foreign company since more than 60 percent of its common shares are owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Group, the investment arm of the Salim family of Indonesia.

Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan represents First Pacific. PLDT has appealed the Supreme Court’s ruling on the case initiated by the late former lawmaker Wilson Gamboa.

The Constitution requires that public utilities like PLDT be 60-percent owned and controlled by Filipinos.

Castelo said if the Supreme Court sustains its ruling, NTC would have allowed a foreign company instead of a Filipino entity to acquire Filipino-owned Digitel.

“Unless the issue on PLDT’s equity structure is settled, the merger will continue to face legal impediments, leading to further complications. The NTC should have waited for the Supreme Court’s final ruling,” he said.

For his part, Rep. Teddy Casiño of the party-list group Bayan Muna said the PLDT-Digitel merger would effectively create a telecom monopoly, to the detriment of the public.

 Negros Daily Bulletin Headlines - Friday

October 28, 2011,  Negros Local News

By Gil Alfredo B. Severino

The Sweet Life of a Cane Cutter’s Son from Dos Hermanas, Talisay

(NDB’s Tribute to a Negrense Who Could be President)

Atty. Wilson Gamboa during his oath-taking ceremony as the Sugar Regulatory Administration President with his family

Back in 1981, Manila-based freelance writer Philip Lustre, Jr. wrote impressive accolade to Wilson Gamboa, Sr., “The venerable former president Diosdado Macapagal named him along with now Paranaque Representative J. Roilo Golez as the country’s two most promising young leaders.” Having rose from the same ranks, did “The Poor Boy from Lubao” meant that Wilson, Sr. could have been the first Negrense to become President of the Philippines?

The politician son Wilson, Jr., a namesake, shook his head in circumspection as he recalled how his father fumigated before a local and internationally popular woman Philippine President Corazon Aquino. Wilson “Jun” Gamboa himself could not picture what took place in the encounter but Cory, he said, had to remind his father three times that SHE was the President of the Republic of the Philippines!

Who can blame Gamboa, Sr.? If former Senator Francisco “Kit” Tatad was the youngest Cabinet Minister in Philippine History, the Marcos oppositionist Assemblyman Gamboa, Sr. was the shortest serving Agrarian Reform Secretary ever to live and died. He was appointed in the morning, attended the turn over ceremony right after Cory sworn him and in the afternoon, his appointment was withdrawn in favor of “the elite’s choice”. Reports read that it was a matter of a call coming from somewhere else.

He could have tamed his tongue, the young Jun Gamboa sounded apologetic but could not hold his piece at his father’s eulogy last October 21, 2011 at the San Sebastian Cathedral, “He could have been more pliable, flexible and a learner of the art of compromise”. Few days after this, in the wake of another Gamboa, Jun Gamboa had the opportunity to interview former Governor and SRA Administrator Rafael “Lito” Cosculluela who obviously belonged to a different breeding but had memorable encounters with Wilson, Sr. during President Fidel Ramos’ time. 

Guv Lito was very assuring that while Wilson, Sr. “came in very strong”, he definitely was very gentle, a gentleman and does not use “gutter” languages. It was an apt analogy of Jun Gamboa’s tearful words before his father’s remains at the Cathedral, strip him of who he was and “this is no longer our Tatay. If we ourselves stripped his idealism and his past, it could have been an early murder of a staunch Nacionalista Party member.” His thought pattern is a “so what” in reaching the highest pinnacle of political office for his own aggrandizement. “He was simply Wilson,” Guv Lito himself attested.

Wilson, Sr.’s only daughter Wilma wrote, his petty gambler father left him at an early age, his Nanay Conching had to dig camote to feed the three broods back in 1941 at Hacienda del Fuego, Dos Hermanas, Talisay. They settled in Bacolod and Wilson, Sr. had to take menial jobs from shoe shine boy to peddling. In fact, Public Administration Professor Roque Hofileña, a neighbor, was once a “suki” of Wilson, Sr. as a rice peddler using a “cariton” while professionally earning that time as an accountant.

Wilma’s heart is at peace, through these all, “One is not destined to stay where one is born and expect nothing more than some respite from poverty. One can still make it from the poorest of the poor, to a place of voice and stature in the community and where credibility led to a seat in power.”

How sweet is the life of Wilson Gamboa, Sr., sojourning from a cane cutter’s son, to an urban peddler until he was called to serve under three Presidents of the Republic, “in a country where social class and financial standing determines one’s lifetime condition”.*