Subic Bay Freeport, Philippines — The group of AWOL employees of Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium Inc. (SBMEI) who ransacked the Manila sales office of the company, on the orderand direction of American national and former CEO Arthur Tai , has been preventively suspended from their official positions.
Robert Gonzaga, SBMEI Corporate Communications Director, said that the AWOL employees who broke into the Manila sales office of Ocean Adventure and Camayan Beach resort on March 6, 2017, namely,Vic Sol, RevelieGuevarra, Dan Teria, Grace Espinoza, Winnie Oconner, Andrea May Maguigad, Eric DelaCruz, and Gwynne Barbasa have been issued NTEs (Notice To Explain) and preventively suspended for 30 days.
The suspensions, and the filing of appropriate criminal charges after due process has been accorded to those involved in the raid, stemmed from the apparent attempt at corporate sabotage and theft of company owned laptops, Desktop computers, a couple of corporate cellular phones, and a vault with money and financial documents inside.
The suspects even ran away with the gift certificates for Ocean Adventure and Camayan Beach resort, the police blotter on the incident said.
Since his removal last February 13, 2017, Tai has been waging an unrelenting campaign to disrupt company operations, while aided and abetted by managers and misguided personnel who follow his bidding, the latest incident being this break-in into the Sales office in Manila.
Prior to his stint as CEO of Ocean Adventure, Tai, an American national, was a consultant from Oxford and Associates in Beijing, China.
Gonzaga said that ” I encourage all the Filipino managers, and rank and file employees who continue to follow Mr. Tai, to think about their own best interests because it is apparent to everyone else that Mr. Tai does not care about the company, or of any of them, and can fly out of the country anytime and leave them to deal with all the mess he has created.”
The majority shareowners of Ocean Adventure have already made clear that Mr. Tai was a self-dealing director and violated the terms of the voting trust that was given to him and that the company’s current CEO is Scott Sharpe who, along with Director Gail Laule, is a founding owner and experts in their field.
The only claim that Mr. Tai has to even being part of Ocean Adventure is the validity of the voting trust given to him by Sharpe and Laule, which had already been revoked for breach of trust and confidence last year.
Gonzaga added that ” if Mr. Tai can betray the trust of his own friends, and the owners of the company who trusted him with their life’s work, what more any of you who he is only paying with funds that belong to the company. No matter what happens, Mr. Tai is no longer coming back to lead the company, of that you can be sure. The current management of SBMEI is coordinating with Philippine law enforcement authorities and will announce the results of their investigation as soon as they are concluded. ”
Gonzaga also clarified that Ms. Maria Elena GatchieBalino, head of Sales and Marketing for Ocean Adventure, continues to work for the company ” and is the authorized director of our sales and marketing office. The top management of the company has full trust and confidence in her abilities to continue her work despite these attempts at corporate sabotage and disruption created by misguided employees of SBMEI. ”
The management of Ocean Adventure has also heard of reports of clients being contacted by AWOL employees misrepresenting themselves and spouting fabrications and distortions in an effort to disrupt company operations.
” We caution the public, our suppliers, clients, and partners to verify the truth about these claims, and not fall victim to any of them. The current management of Ocean Adventure is more than willing to address any and all concerns you may have regarding these issues. ” Gonzaga said.
At present, SBMEI is coordinating with the Department of Labor and Employment so that the erring managers and employees can be afforded due process and have a chance to explain their actions before the appropriate criminal complaints are filed about the theft and corporate sabotage that happened at the Manila sales office. (Press Release)