The last time I wrote about Gonzalo Co It (often referred to as simply Gonzalo Co) and his travails as the dispossessed owner of Green Cross Inc. (GCI) was in January last year (“Green Cross family feud worsens,” January 8, 2013, issue of the BusinessMirror)
My write-up was essentially a summation of his autobiography, The Green Cross Saga. In his book, Gonzalo narrates in detail how, through the treacherous machinations of two younger brothers and a sister, he was eventually (over a 30-year period), totally eased out of what is now a 24-billion company that he single-handedly built from scratch. (The autobiography can be read online at www.green-cross-saga.com).
The launching of the book three years ago, when Gonzalo was 91, was his rather belated signal to his siblings – including Joseph (now deceased), represented by heir Anthony A. Co; Peter A. Co; and Mary A. Co – that he would take all the legal and persuasive steps necessary to recover what rightfully belongs to him until his dying day. The recovery effort is apparently meant to ensure that his eight sons would eventually get their rightful share of the multibillion-peso business empire.
To this day, Gonzalo adamantly maintains that he assigned the shares currently held by his siblings and their heirs in GCI “only by implied trust.” He likes to stress the fact that he did not get any payment in exchange for those shares, which he said he never intended to sell.
“I remained the real and true owner of those shares. They did not contribute any money or capital into the corporation, and there were no supporting deeds of assignment,” Gonzalo said.
People privy to the crucial details of the complete corporate takeover, however, tend to believe that Gonzalo faces a steep, uphill legal battle in his quest to reclaim GCI.
“Truth may be on his side,” a sympathetic lawyer commented, “but layers upon layers of legal technicalities might prevent him from getting the justice he demands or deserves.”
Still, Gonzalo remains undaunted and doggedly continues his quest for justice.
His latest legal move was to file graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman against lawyer Josephine C. Alon, a hearing officer of the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
Alon was assigned by the IPO to determine who holds the original patent to Zonrox, the popular household bleaching agent that registers up to P3 billion in sales yearly for GCI. Gonzalo has filed an infringement case against his siblings, who, by the way, are also claiming that they own the patents to Zonrox and Green Cross rubbing alcohol, which are being marketed by the company.
Based on what he has revealed in his autobiography, Gonzalo has apparently been jealously guarding his ownership of those original patents since the 1950s, when they were awarded to him by the Bureau of Patents. That bureau was the forerunner of the agency now called the IPO.
Mere ownership of these patents, it seems, means hundreds of millions of pesos worth of royalties for him, even if the corporation that markets these two fast-selling household products is not presently under his control.
Gonzalo also apparently believes that, once he has fully established his ownership of the two patents, it can serve as his leverage to force his siblings to the negotiating table regarding a just and equitable sharing of the corporate assets of GCI before he dies.
The problem, however, is that his siblings have somehow succeeded in registering the same patents with the IPO, claiming them as their own.
Upon discovering the misrepresentation in 2011, Gonzalo wasted no time in filing a case for infringement against his siblings before the IPO. The patent infringement case has since been pending for more than two years now in Alon’s office.
What is strange is that the lawyers representing GCI often deliberately come to the hearings unprepared, resulting in endless postponements. “It’s as if they’re just biding their time waiting for the complainant to die,” an IPO lawyer said.
Exasperated by the apparent foot-dragging by the GCI side, Gonzalo decided to appeal to Alon’s human side by sending her a formal, handwritten letter to please speed up the case resolution of the infringement case. In his short letter, dated January 3 this year, Co said:
“I filed my position paper in the case on August 27, 2013, or six months ago. I come to you to request for your early decision… I [will turn] 94 years old on Saturday, January 25, 2014. I hope to see the result of my case before I die…Trusting that you would consider my request with your kindness…Very truly yours, Co It, a.k.a. Gonzalo Co It, complainant-appellant.”
