SEC alerts Filipinos on firm’s mango plot sale

“The cease and desist order issued in May 2004 by the SEC is permanent,” Attorney Maria Elmira Alconaba, Assistant-Director, Compliance and Enforcement Department at SEC, told Khaleej Times.

This order means that Good Harvest, its officers, directors, agent and representatives are not allowed to “undertake further offering, soliciting or otherwise selling of securities to the public until the requirements of the law have been complied with”.

Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Libran Cabactulan, who had contacted the SEC to verify the issuance of a permanent CDO, yesterday called on the representatives of Good Harvest to clarify the SEC order to all Filipinos who had purchased the so-called “Micro Mango Orchard” since the start of the Dubai Shopping Festival.

Good Harvest is in the business of selling a mango tree in a plot of land called “Micro Mango Orchard”. The company takes care of raising and nurturing the tree of the “Micro Mango Orchard” owner for five years until it begins to bear fruits. It then markets the produce in the local and world market.

According to SEC records, on May 11, 2004, Good Harvest filed with the Commission an Urgent Motion to Lift the CDO after the SEC issued the CDO against the company on May 6, 2004. The company was given an opportunity to rebut the Commission’s findings of unregistered securities offering. However, it failed to do so. Hence, on November 30, 2004 the CDO was declared permanent.

Benjie Pazcoguin, VP, Sales and Marketing, Orchard Business Partner, told Khaleej Times that the CDO was automatically lifted. “The SEC is in default. We've won the case. We've been cleared and we've complied with them,” he asserted.

To support his claims, Pazcoguin forwarded an “Advisory” that was published in two Philippine national dailies, Manila Bulletin and Philippine Daily Inquirer, on December 3, 2004. It read: “We, the Board of Directors, Senior Management and the thousands of agro-entrepreneurs of Good Harvest Orchards Marketing Corporation, are elated to underscore the fact that the ex-parte Cease and Desist Order issued earlier by the Securities and Exchange Commission, by mandate of law is now automatically lifted, pursuant to Sec. 64.3 of the Securities Regulations Code...”

Hubert B. Guevara, Director, Compliance and Enforcement Department, however, said: “The “Advisory” of Good Harvest had no legal basis considering that a permanent cease and desist order has in fact been issued by the SEC last November 30, 2004. There is no truth that the CDO was automatically lifted by operation of law or by the Commission.”

Guevara informed Ambassador Cabactulan that the SEC cannot send any investigator to the UAE as it does not have any jurisdiction to enforce Philippine laws in the UAE. “We are hopeful that through your good office, we can secure documents offered to the public and advise our kababayan (compatriots) of the fact that a permanent cease and desist order has been issued by the SEC,” he said.