The management and staff of the Coconut Industry Investment Fund-Oil Mills Group (CIIF-OMG) has expressed alarm over the nomination of board member Rehan Balt Lao as its new President—by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte—and urged the government firm’s Board of Directors to defer action for “further evaluation and consultation” with the Office of the President.
CIIF-OMG, a multibillion-peso investment company established for the benefit of Filipino coconut farmers and the development of the coconut industry, is composed of six oil mill companies that were acquired using the controversial coco levy funds during the term of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
In a recent letter to the government-owned firm, Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea informed the CIIF-OMB Board that President Duterte approved the nomination of Lao as its new president.
The firm’s stakeholders, however, assailed the nomination and urged CIIF-OMB management to defer action on the confirmation of Lao for “lack of competence, experience and of his questionable character and background.”
It said Medialdea’s letter should be returned to the Office of the President “for re-evaluation and probable investigation.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Lao has served as Head Executive Assistant at the Civil Service Commission from June 2011 to the present. He earned his Bachelor of Laws from Mindanao State University in 2007 and took the Bar examinations in 2014 but was not on the list of passers.
Lao has also been active in organizing federalism symposiums with the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte—National Executive Coordinating Committee (MRRD-NECC), a group loyal to the President.
CIIF-OMG sources, requesting they not be named for fear of losing their jobs, said Lao has presented himself as a lawyer, but upon verification with the Supreme Court does not appear to be a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.
The same sources said Lao was reported to have been involved in “some anomalous transactions” as CIIF-OMG board member in collaboration with spouses Jocel and Marilou Luy, who are also MRRC-NECC supporters.
Earlier, incumbent CIIF-OMG President and Chief Executive Benedicto Lor Jr. said the Luys pressured him “to produce money for [Special Assistant to President Duterte] Secretary Christopher Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go because the midterm election is already fast approaching.”
“I repeatedly declined to obey [Luy] as I believe Secretary Bong Go would not make such an order,” Lor said. “I know SAP Bong Go to be an honest and upright person, and he would not use his office, much less betray the trust of President Duterte, just to raise funds for his senatorial campaign.”
Other board members, also asking they not be named, also deplored the “interventions and manipulations” of the Luys, who claimed to be relatives of President Duterte and “bullied” the directors into electing Lao as CIIF-OMG president.
In response, the Board issued a Resolution dated February 3, signed by its Chairman Eddie P. Delima, and concurred by Directors Jovencio H. Evangelista, Edgar B. Perez, Aquilino D. Trinidad, and Ramon A. Salvilla, that expressed their full trust and confidence on Lor “for his honesty, dedication and for the reforms implemented and for turning CIIF-OMG into a profitable venture.”
The board noted that for the first time since 2012, CIIF-OMG registered a profit of over P100 million despite the closure of some of its plants in previous years, which it attributed to a drastic reduction in pilferage and anti-corruption measures undertaken last year by Lor.
Earlier, the Supreme Court declared CIIF-OMG funds as government-owned, since the money used to acquire these oil mills were from coco levy fund collected by the Marcos dictatorship.
Among the income of these oil mills were used to buy the shares of San Miguel Corporation in 1983 that grew into P74 billion pesos when it was transferred to National Treasury in 2012 as ordered by the Supreme Court.