Yasay’s testimony on Erap’s alleged kickback
Had the impeachment proceedings pushed through eight years ago, more information could have been divulged about former President Joseph Estrada’s reported use of presidential discretion to facilitate corporate mergers, specifically his alleged influence over the deal between Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd. and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). During Estrada’s impeachment trial in January 2001, then Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Perfecto Yasay testified on how Estrada sided with First Pacific for it to have control over PLDT. Yasay testified before the impeachment court that Estrada received a US$20-million kickback to facilitate the transaction, which was denied by Estrada's camp. Yasay likewise said during the impeachment trial that he was slapped with two suspension orders when he tried to investigate whether the transaction complied with the Securities Code. Yasay was reinstated in January 1999 after questioning the suspension orders before the Supreme Court, but the deal between First Pacific and PLDT had already been signed upon his return. Following Yasay’s testimony, the Senate summoned PLDT president and chief executive officer Manuel Pangilinan to testify before the impeachment court and shed light on Estrada’s alleged involvement in the said transaction. Pangilinan’s testimony, however, did not materialize after Estrada's allies at the Senate refused to open a second envelope containing bank accounts during the impeachment proceedings. This triggered the five-day EDSA Dos uprising that led to Estrada’s ouster.
- ANDREO C. CALONZO, GMANews.TV Business tycoon Alfonso Yuchengco on Tuesday confirmed allegations of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that former President Joseph Estrada coerced his family into selling its shares in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, the country's leading telecommunications firm. "I confirm the statements made by Senator Panfilo Lacson in his privilege speech relating to my 7.75% PTIC [Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp.] holdings, equivalent to 2,017,650 in PLDT [Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company] common shares," Yuchengco said in an unsigned statement faxed to media by his lawyer, who declined to be named. The statement was not on any letterhead. "These shares were taken from me in 1998 through sheer intimidation and serious threat to my business, myself, and my family," the businessman added. The statement was authenticated by a Yuchengco family member privy to the case, who was contacted by GMANews.TV. In his privilege speech on Monday, Lacson claimed that Yuchencgo was
pressured to convey PTIC's 7.75-percent holdings corresponding to about 2.018-million PLDT shares. Lacson added that Yuchengco “was pressed to sign a waiver of his right of first refusal over the PTIC shares of the Cojuangco-Meer group." He said he learned much later that Estrada used the Philippine National Police (PNP) to harass Yuchengco’s son, Tito, with arrest on some trumped-up drug charges to force Yuchengco to sell the shares. "It was only after the passage of many years that I was to learn that Mr. Estrada, barely two months in office then, used the PNP to harass Mr. Yuchengco’s son, Tito, with threat of arrest on some trumped-up drug charges to force his father, Mr. Yuchengco to sell. This harassment of the young man was accomplished through deliberate and obvious physical surveillance," said Lacson, who once was Estrada’s police chief. But the transaction between the group of Manuel V. Pangilinan – who chairs PLDT – and the Yuchengco Group – which owns equity in the PTIC that in turn held PLDT shares – was
“commercial in nature," PLDT director Ray Espinosa said on Monday, shortly after Lacson’s speech. Espinosa added that PLDT maintains a good business relationship with the Yuchengco Group, which also has interests in the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and Malayan Insurance. Helen Yuchengco Dee, daughter of Alfonso Yuchengco, also remains a PLDT board member, Espinosa added.
- Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV 
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