BARGAIN SALE: The Government Service Insurance System bought 300,963,189 shares in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) early this year at P80.91 each and sold them last Oct. 28 to San Miguel Corp. at P90 each, payable in three years without interest.

Is GSIS president and general manager Winston Garcia, who engineered the sale, to be commended or condemned?

Garcia boasted that he turned around “a seemingly losing proposition into a P12.7-billion profit” when he sold the stock – representing 27 percent of Meralco’s issued shares — at P90 each at a time when the market price was down to P44.50.

But Garcia’s detractors said that under the “bargain sale” installment terms, SMC would pay GSIS only P2.50 per month for each share.

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REEKING OF GRAFT: Interested parties are itching to examine the final documents that have to be submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission on the transaction, which some financial experts said “reeks of graft.”

Garcia’s critics said it finally become clear why Garcia waged a relentless campaign pummeling Meralco till its share price dropped — then executed his coup de grace of selling to his other company all the Meralco shares held by GSIS at a bargain price.

San Miguel has secured board consent for management to enter into a purchase agreement with the GSIS, its chief financial officer Ferdinand Constantino said in a disclosure to the PSE. As of June, SMC had cash assets valued at P105 billion.

San Miguel will have to explain why it agreed to pay a “bloated” price (P90 versus P44.50 per share, or double the current price) spread over three years.

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P3-B CAT: In his initial excitement, Garcia said that the deal was worth P30 billion, including interest over three years. That could be a damning slip of the tongue that let a P3-billion cat out of the bag.

Realizing there would be a discrepancy in the money computation, Garcia changed his story and announced that (1) GSIS would actually get P27 billion, not P30 billion, and that (2) San Miguel would not pay interest.

Observes are now asking what happened to the P3-billion discrepancy that must have been in the original discussions of those working out the details.

They are also asking how much is the commission – and who would get the lion’s share. Will it go to Garcia or to somebody whose benediction or genius is crucial to the deal?

Considering that the GSIS is reportedly having cash flow problems and is reeling from huge paper losses in its global investment program, should not the commission or whatever they call that collateral income go to GSIS members?

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DOUBLE ROLE: Critics of Garcia want Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, assuming she has waken up with all that noise, to investigate the GSIS boss for conflict of interest and possibly graft.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers, for one, said the action of Garcia — who sits as member of the SMC board, is “inimical to the interest of the teachers who stand to suffer from the bargain sale of Meralco shares payable in three years without interest.

ACT president Antonio Tinio said that Garcia played double, yet conflicting, roles in the transaction. He was on the board of both the seller (GSIS) and the buyer (SMC).

By his clever maneuvers, including kicking Meralco around, Garcia virtually handed over on a silver platter all the devalued but still prized Meralco shares of the GSIS to his other company (SMC).

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WIDE SCOPE: That was a lame excuse given by the office of Ombudsman Gutierrez for not filing charges against former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante two years after the Senate found proof of criminal activity involving P728 million in fertilizer funds under his care.

Assistant Ombudsman Jose de Jesus Jr., who is handling the case, said their investigation would take time because the issue covered a “very wide scope.” Of the 181 transactions questioned, he said only about 40 have been looked into by their field offices.

“This is really a lot, it has a very wide scope,” he said. “Fact-finding, which is the first stage of our investigation, is still ongoing.”

He added: “Only five complaints so far, involving 24 respondents including Mr. Bolante, have advanced to preliminary investigation.”

On Bolante’s list of recipients of fertilizer funds were 105 congressmen, 52 governors, a vice governor and 23 mayors. They included officials in urban centers where fertilizer was not needed.

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FOOT-DRAGGING: The Ombudsman is obviously dragging her feet. There are many ways of speeding up the investigation and filing charges.

One thing the Ombudsman can do, if she really wants to get things done pronto, is to focus on a few sample cases that are easier to prove. Get on with these initial complaints and add on the others as evidence builds up.

Given the big number of cases all over the archipelago and the volume of documents to sift through and the hundreds of witnesses to examine under oath, the Ombudsman cannot hope to wrap up everything before President Gloria Arroyo steps down in 2010.

Instead of netting all the fish in one big haul, the practical thing to do is to focus on selected cases where the probability of nailing down the rascals is greater.

President Arroyo’s term ending in 2010 is mentioned because one side issue is that the fertilizer fund was diverted to her campaign in 2004. After 2010, all that might become moot.