THE PHILIPPINE Supreme Court (SC) has upheld an appellate court decision that found a hotel company violating the Foreign Investments Act (FIA) after it failed to report to the corporate regulator a change in the nationality of its majority owner.
“The FIA relevantly provides that a non-Philippine corporation must register with the SEC before it does business in the country or invest in a domestic corporation,” the high court’s Second Division said in an 11-page resolution against New Coast Hotel, Inc.
It said the hotel’s allegation of delay on the part of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in detecting and acting on its offense was unsubstantiated.
“In sum, no error was committed by the Court of Appeals when it held that neither prescription nor laches bar the SEC from penalizing New Coast for its violation of the FIA as the same is in accord with law and jurisprudence,” it added. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana
