Probe utilitys offshore accounts The Manila Times – The Manila Times

A lawyer from Iloilo City has vowed to seek an investigation of the findings of an international group of journalists that the Panay Electric Co. (PECO) and its owners, the Cacho family led by its patriarch Luis Miguel Cacho, opened three offshore companies in the Bahamas with the help of a Singapore-based in vestment firm.

PECO used to distribute electricity in Iloilo City.

The offshore accounts owned by PECO and the Cacho family were discovered in an international investigation of two databases that had been fed for nearly 30 years by two companies: Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet and British Virgin Islands (BVI)-based Commonwealth Trust Ltd.

Lawyer Zafiro Lauron said he would ask the Anti-Money Laundering Council to open an investigation of the offshore bank accounts of the Cacho family and PECO.

I will pursue this case on behalf of Ilonggos who suffered from paying electricity bills almost double of those being paid by people in Metro Manila, he added.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) listed PECO as one of the owners of two companies while Luis Miguel Cacho owned one investment company, all registered in the BVI, a tax haven favored by wealthy families.

The ICIJ, a global network of more than 190 investigative journalists in more than 65 countries, came out with batches of documents of secret registration of paper companies in tax havens all around the world.

According to the consortium, among the documents found in the data leaked to the group called the Offshore Leaks Papers were thousands of documents listing the paper companies that were registered in the BVI by Portcullis TrustNet Fund Services Ltd., a company owned by Singapore-based Portcullis Services Pte. Ltd.

The ICIJ found that PECO and members of the Cacho family registered at least three companies in the BVI at a period when Iloilo City officials and Ilonggos demanded that PECO account for the high levels of profits that it had declared for its shareholders.

The ICIJ web page showed that the late Luis Miguel Cacho registered a company called the Costa Group Investments Ltd. on April 11, 2000, with an address listed as Portcullis Trustnet Chambers, PO Box 3444 Road Town Tortola, BVI.

Listed as members of its board of directors were Luis Miguel Ayesa Cacho, also corporate secretary, Jose Maria Cacho and William Michael Valtos Jr.

Luis Miguel was also the president and chief operating officer of PECO, while his son Marcelo is PECOs head of public engagement and government affairs.

According to the ICIJ, PECO also set up two other companies in the BVI.

The utility firm lost its franchise to distribute power in Iloilo City early this year.

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Probe utilitys offshore accounts The Manila Times - The Manila Times