SEC renews Picop’s corporate license

Pulp and newsprint manufacturer Picop Resources Inc. was given a new lease on life by the Securities and Exchange Commission after paying the required P12 million in filing fee for the renewal of its business registration.

SEC Chairman Lilia R. Bautista said the commission has agreed to extend Picop’s corporate life for another 50 years following the firm’s settlement of its filing fee deficiency. The approval, she said, will be retroactive.

This means Picop’s legal personality as a de facto corporation will be retroactive from March 31 where its license had supposedly expired.

Picop was forced to pay the corresponding filing fee after the SEC refused to act upon the former’s application for renewal of corporate registration. The company earlier paid a mere P210 in filing fee as it contested the required amount.

The filing fee of P12 million represents one fifth of one percent of the authorized capital stock of Picop.

The firm’s failure to renew its corporate license resulted in the suspension by the Philippine Stock Exchange of trading of Picop shares. This was also used by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to hold Picop’s integrated forest management agreement (IFMA) after its timber license agreement expired last April 25.

Controlled by the Bernardino family, Picop operates its milling plant and wood plantation in Bislig, Surigao del Sur. Once Southeast Asia’s largest integrated wood and paper milling company, it was listed in 1973 and transformed into a holding firm in 1997 as it ventured into particleboard manufacturing and palm oil plantation. – Zinnia dela Peña