The group of armed men who robbed the Cosmos office in Davao city of some P500,000 cash in mid year 2006 was actually tasked to liquidate the former executive of the Cosmos Bottling Corporation (CBC) who is an Ilonggo after he exposed the "fraudulent system" in the company’s Depot or Non-Traditional Warehouse (NTW).
This was the contention made by Fortunato "Nonoy" Peñaredondo, former CBC area sales manager and assistant vice president in South Mega Manila. Peñaredondo was also reportedly subjected to surveillance "in suspicious circumstances for three months" early this year after he made the expose in a letter addressed to the bigwigs of the CBC and the San Miguel Corp. (SMC), mother company of the country’s pioneering soft drink firm. Peñaredondo, cousin of Iloilo City Councilor Eduardo, narrated in his "summary of related events/information" that the robbery on July 15, 2006 was "efficiently executed by two persons or group of persons in a span of two minutes."
SILENCER AND LASER SIGHT
He observed that: "One of the armaments used was 0.45 CAL-Pistol with silencer and laser sight; intention to shoot and kill was exhibited by the perpetrators who actually the cashier but luckily, was not hit. Naturally, that shot done with the silencer was not heard by the guards at the gate who only knew of the robbery upon its completion." He added, the "cashier’s office is adjacent to my office separated only by a glass pane. Luckily, I was not in the office at that time. Obviously, because of their armament and efficiency, the perpetrators could belong to a high-powered group and that the loot of a little more than P500,000 was too small for the said robbery," Peñaredondo pointed out. "I suspect, the possible and more serious purpose of the suspects was to harm me physically."
HIRED GROUP
He revealed the most recent update from the police agency investigating the robbery pointed to the perpetrators’ as a hired-group from General Santos City . Peñaredondo said, "last September 16, my wife and I were subjected to surveillance by two suspicious-looking persons for one day." Also last September 20, his residence was subjected to surveillance by a police asset which he had already identified. "I believe that there is an existing serious threat to my personal safety. All the more it becomes serious as it relates to the above anomalies that I have exposed and it’s possible perpetrators in our company," Peñaredondo wrote.
EXPOSE LETTER
In his "expose" contained in a letter dated January 3, 2005 with a title "Depot/Non-Traditional Warehouse (NTW)-A Misuse for Fraudulent Reporting" which was furnished SMC bigwigs Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. and Ramon Ang, Peñaredondo opposed the massive use by CBC starting 2004 of the NTW system. It is a system, he said, "wherein huge quantities of CBC products are stored in numerous and massive warehouses all over the country and after which these products are then invoiced to customers, purely on credit, as sales." Citing basic accounting principles, Peñaredondo explained that "a sales transaction can be considered legit and consummated if it involved payment or realization of credit by a customer in exchange for the transfer of possession or ownership of a merchandise from the supplier to the customer." There is no such transfer in the case of CBC, he said. "The warehouse wherein the purportedly purchased products are kept, are paid for and directly supervised by CBC; thus negating the occurrence of the transfer of ownership or possession of our products to our customers."
‘DOWNRIGHT FRAUDULENT ACT’
Peñaredondo said, "It is very clear then that the above practice of the Depot/NTW system is a downright fraudulent act. I say this because internally, it is false reporting of sales performance and externally, it is a false declaration of the company’s financial health which is the basis of the market valuation of CBC’s shares of stock and that of SMC’s in the stock market." When the system was stopped in 2005 because of his expose, the company saved hundreds of millions of pesos, or even close to a billion, in avoiding the costs of the following: NTW rentals, inventory spoilages, inventory losses, unnecessary hauling operation, and other logistical duplications. Peñaredondo surmised that the persons who are harassing and maltreating him "are doing it out of a misplaced sense of retribution or attempts to silence me by causing my permanent separation from the company."
Meanwhile, Ray Rico, a former CBC plant sales manager in Iloilo, said "Peñaredondo is fighting for a principle not for himself." He lauded Peñaredondo "for his courage to stand up against all odds and to expose the truth." SMC acquired CBC from the Concepcion family in 2002. From a profit of P858 million in 2002, the company’s bottom line skidded to P542.9 million in 2003 and P215.7 million in 2004, it was learned. /MP mailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
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