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MANILA - It was a case of the dead selling the dead, according to the lawyer of five bus companies that last month complained of the transfer of 489 bus franchises to their rival.
In a statement, lawyer Hazel Minoza - legal counsel of GV Florida Bus Lines, Dagupan Bus Lines, Saulog Transit, Partas and Baliwag Transit - said the Pantranco Retrenched Employees Association and the Pantranco Employees Association had no legal personality to sell the bus permits of Pantranco North Express Inc. to five companies owned by the Hernandez family.
The five recipients of the 489 permits were Pangasinan Five Star, Victory Liner, Bataan Transit, First North Luzon Bus Co. and Luzon Cisco Transport.
Minoza said PNEI's registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission was revoked on July 2, 2003, while that of PANREA on December 1, 2005.
“Legally, this is where the sale stands. Two entities with no SEC registration actually sold 489 bus franchises which had been declared dead 20 years ago, an expired status consistently sustained by the government transport bodies for almost two decades. In short, it was a sale of dead franchises done by two non-existing entities," the lawyer said.
The lawyer cited certifications from the SEC Company Monitoring and Registration Department dated April 19 and June 5 of this year, both showing that PNEI and PANREA were not registered with the regulator.
The Land Transport Franchising and Regulatory Board approved PANREA's sale of PNEI's permits to the Hernandez-owned bus companies last May.
Transportation Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas recently suspended the award of the subject bus permits to the Hernandez group of bus companies, and ordered an inquiry into the matter.
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