The government has been urged to intervene and stop the alleged “looting” and

“robbery-in-band” of the assets of

 PICOP, which used to operate 182, 682-hectare tree plantation and pulp and paper mill facility in Bislig, Surigao del Sur.   In separate letters to Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual and Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno on March 6, 2023, Francisco J. Buencamino, the court-appointed receiver of PICOP Resources Inc. (PRI) and its affiliate New Paper Industries Corp. (NPIC), detailed the situation obtaining at the PICOP premises.  In both letters, Buencamino reported of “robbery-in-band” of PICOP assets, including the P450-million worth of equipment and machinery by new third-party investors and sold to bidders, by armed members of a labor group. In his letter to Pascual, said a third a third-party investor has already shipped 141 documented container vans containing equipment and machinery valued at P450 million for the rehabilitation of PICOP, but which were part of the assets sold.  “The DTI will be hard put to restore investor confidence if the perpetrators of this is left unpunished,” he added. The third party-investor, which he did not identify, should have helped in the recovery of the lone pulp and paper plant in the country only to be converted into scrap metal. “The ‘robbery-in-band’ and plunder now committed has compromised our chances of recovery at very high risk, if not urgently addressed or stopped, and becomes a crime against the government, creditors, and Filipino investors numbering more than 12 thousand shareholders,” he said. The ongoing “robbery-in-band”, he said, is happening despite his opposition and pleas to the local governments, the police and other government agencies. As a receiver for PICOP, Buencamino was armed with a STAY ORDER on claims on PICOP issued by RTC 149 Makati City on June 6, 2008 to suspend all actions or proceedings for the enforcement of claims against the debtor and suspends all actions to enforce any judgment, attachment or other provisional remedies against PICOP and NPIC. Buencamino said once PICOP has been rehabilitated with an approved plan by the Courts, the industrial tree plantation could generate sufficient values to settle unpaid obligations to claimants and hopefully to recover the investments of this publicly-held corporation with about 12,000 shareholders. At its peak of operations, PICOP generated jobs for about 8,000 employees who will be given priority of settlement of back wages and benefits, all in accordance with legal procedures and provisions of the Financial Rehabilitation & Insolvency Act of 2010 (FRIA). The Stay Order was meant to help preserve and protect the assets entrusted to the receiver by the Court. PICOP assets of the pulp and paper mill contain high value metal and steel parts. In fact, he said, organized scrap metal buyers have become interested in converting the plant machinery and equipment into scrap materials, including building and construction materials of metal and iron for sale to smelters and other like-factories. “I have denied requests, manifestations and petitions from Labor Unions to grant them exemption from the STAY ORDER in order to pay off claims by employees who are members of the Union,” he said adding that struggled to stop these groups away. In 2019, the Receiver filed a contempt case against a labor organization known as AKPHRI-AWATU and the Voluntary Arbitrator of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) in Bislig for violating the “Stay Order” and successfully obtained a from the RTC Makati a cease and desist order. But Buencamino said the groups forced their way into the PICOP compound to extract assets forcibly as early as August 2020, stripping off  PICOP buildings of cables, metal parts of equipment and machinery generators, among others to be sold to satisfy their alleged labor claims. Buencamino also mentioned of a supposed winner in the auction, who together with his group, has allegedly possessed the paper mill complex and has been moving out PICOP’s properties on the basis of implementing a Writ of Execution from the National Labor Relations Commission/National Conciliation and Mediation Board, on PICOP assets. “The most recent Writ of Execution on these assets was issued on January 25, 2023 despite their knowledge that these were not assets of PICOP,” he reported. In his separate letter to Diokno, Buencamino cited a statement from the Landbank of the Philippines that the “assets of PICOP belong to the creditors of PICOP and should not and cannot be distributed to alleged winning bidders of assets that are already mortgaged.” “We have nowhere else to turn to when a conspiracy of criminals teams up by connivance with LGU officials and the PNP as they claim they are only executing orders from the NLRC/NCMB,” he told Diokno. Buencamino said he has also reached out to DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos to assist PICOP.