By Eileen A. Mencias

THE Land Bank of the Philippines yesterday filed a plunder complaint against recently retired Meralco president Jesus Francisco and five others over the transfer of a block of LandBank shares in Manila Electric Co. worth P2.4 billion to a landowner in Occidental Mindoro.

Francisco aside, LandBank filed the plunder case against former Meralco corporate secretary Emmanuel Sison, Agrarian Reform adjudicator Conchita Mi?as, sheriff Juanita Baylon, sheriff Maximo Elejerio, and landowner Josefina Lubrica.

LandBank counsel Noel Marquez said Mi?as issued an order to auction the LandBank shares in Meralco, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and First Gen as compensation for the Lubrica property that was distributed to farmer-tenants.

The compensation to Lubrica amounted to only P157 million, and should have been taken from the government?s agrarian reform fund, and not from LandBank?s assets, said Marquez.

Lubrica is the assignee of a Federico Suntay, the owner of 948.19 hectares of land in Sta Lucia, Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.

According to Marquez, Mi?as ordered the sheriffs to seize the LandBank shares in the three listed companies to pay Lubrica despite a 2007 Supreme Court directive for the Regional Trial Court to continue hearing the case filed by LandBank to determine the just compensation for the expropriated property.

While the Mi?as? directive to the sheriffs also included taking over PLDT and First Gen shares, only Meralco allowed the cancelation of the shares, said Marquez.

Moreover, LandBank was not informed of the public auction of its shares, which resulted in the transfer of the questioned Meralco shares to Lubrica.

Before LandBank could recover the Meralco block, about 3.36 million of the 42 million contested shares found their way and had been traded in the stock market.

Before the plunder case was filed, the Department of Agrarian Reform had suspended Mi?as for three months and revoked her controversial decision.

According to a LandBank official, the Meralco executives were included in the plunder complaint because of their ?bad faith,? having allowed the garnishment and transfer of the Meralco shares at a time when the government financial institutions were consolidating their Meralco shareholdings for eventual sale to the San Miguel Corp.

Plunder is punishable by death.