When talking about the Asian Century, almost always the discussion is confined to geopolitics, largely the struggle for influence between two super powers China and the United States. But what started the rise of Asia’s influence were the countries that led in the industrialization of the region, led by the likes of Japan, Korea, and now China.
As Germany’s car industry tried to out compete each other in being green or environment friendly, emission scandals eventually opened a can of worms. Korea, of course, Samsung the great Korean company has long been in and out of court defending itself and its owners from charges of bribery, cronyism, and influence peddling via slush funds.
In Japan, one particular industry, the medical industry, has also been caught in various scandals, Olympus and Toshiba have been accused of cooking their books, thus paving the way for the downfall of their respective leaderships. Olympus executives were made to pay over half a billion US dollars in fines. Toshiba has been chopped to bit sizes and sold off as assets.
I wrote about the case against Fujifilm Philippines over a year ago and the number of cases are growing and it seems some are finally for decisions at the RTC level already, and I think it is worth studying as this seems to give us what is the symptomatic problem of Japanese companies and their waning influence in the region, except maybe in the Philippines, and we need to change that as we try to change the equation of what is “normal” in their doing of business here.
Ryo Nagaoka, the former president of Fujifilm Philippines, and Amor Panen, the division manager of the Human Resources department have charges that stem from allegations that they submitted false documents claiming Nagaoka had resigned from Fujifilm Philippines after ostensibly being reassigned to Japan. The Filipino executives in this company, led principally according to court records, by Amor Panen, helped the Japanese expat (Nagaoka) elude justice. This kind of collaboration has been a bane of our country throughout history, as exemplified by our history in World War II and the never settled issues surrounding the Makapilis and other collaborators.
Amor Panen already made bail. Nagaoka and Panen provided the courts with misleading information on Nagaoka’s employment status at Fujifilm Philippines. The city prosecutor of Pasig asserted that Panen’s statement, which confirmed Nagaoka’s resignation, constituted “a willful and deliberate assertion of falsehood pertaining to a material matter” in her judicial affidavit. This affidavit was filed on February 5, 2024, but was notably absent from a subsequent motion for reconsideration submitted by Nagaoka regarding the hold departure order in August 2023.
Nagaoka’s undated resignation letter only surfaced during the civil case for damages filed by Sunfu Solutions, which includes allegations of obstruction of justice against Fujifilm Philippines.
Although Fujifilm Philippines initially certified Sunfu Solutions as its product distributor before the bidding process, it withdrew that certification just as Sunfu Solutions was poised to win the contract, forcing its disqualification, as Fujifilm all along was betting on another company. Of course as was noted by another writer, it is alleged by the rumor mill that money exchanged hands somewhere for this betrayal to have happened.
Sunfu Solutions secured a hold departure order (HDO) against Nagaoka, who earlier managed to leave for Japan. The company has also filed a civil case for damages, alleging that Nagaoka’s transfer to Japan was an attempt to evade the jurisdiction of the Philippine courts, with Haruto Iwata and Masahiro Uehara sought for judicial interrogation, and a likely additional criminal case coming soon.
Hold Departure Orders (HDO) have also been issued against Filipinos Evan Reyes and John Paul Camarillo for a separate case of estafa.
Camarillo is an interesting character: he apparently applied to Sunfu Solutions, Inc. twice before gaining employment in Fujifilm, and according to court documents has been instrumental in engineering the fraud against Sunfu Solutions.
In internal documents of Fujifilm, Camarillo then went on to report the unethical and criminal behavior of his immediate boss Evan Reyes, wanting to have his immediate boss taken out of the company.
Camarillo has since approached Aceron and Attorneys of Sunfu asking for money to hire lawyers to turn against Fujifilm and expose the truths . After getting reimbursed for lawyers’ fees from Sunfu Solutions, Camarillo went back to Fujifilm seeking protection, turning around again. Again, the story of our country and the world “collaborator.”
Last Monday, Himex Corporation’s demand letter was filed as part of the records in court of its rehabilitation program. Apparently, according to court documents, Himex is demanding Fujifilm Philippines pay it 1 billion pesos. Fujifilm alledgedly sold it a large inventory of imaging machines like CT scans and MRIs, and upon delivery, revoked the distributorship of Himex in order to support other distributors who are also likely required to meet again certain quotas and inventory targets.
What Sunfu Solutions and Himex cases have in common, aside from sharing the same law firm (Aceron and Attorneys, a young group of lawyers fast gaining a reputation of being a most powerful slingshot against legal giants and monsters), is they are both going after Fujifilm officials based in Singapore, securely far away from the long arm of the Philippine laws, free to violate whatever else is in our Constitution.
A way must be found to bring these executives to face the consequences of their actions.
If you research in the internet, Olympus and Toshiba, both also involved in medical devices and equipment, have also been investigated and embarrassed for serious ethical lapses and violations of laws and rules. The problems of Fililpino companies with Fujifilm may yet be beyond just a company controlled or with criminal or rogue executives, it may be a problem with Japan’s corporate culture.
For all the technological prowess supposedly of Japan, the xray products making waves in the Philippine market marketed by Fujifilm are in reality produced by Korean companies, none manufactured by Fujifilm, cheaper without the Fujifilm sticker when bought directly in Korea. The sticker is the only part that comes from Fujifilm.
And in this so-called Asian Century, business practices must be scrutinized as we try to redefine the region amid ASEAN integration, realignments of supply chains, and the competition among regional clusters to dominate the global market. Let us expose these practices that need to end.
Mauro Gia Samonte
is a self-taught literary craftsman, screenplay writer, film director, and a practicing journalist into his octogenarian years.
In 1970, Samonte had already established a name as a movie journalist and as Editor of Movie Confidential and Entertainment Editor of the Weekly Nation, signature publications of the Amado Araneta-owned Makabayan Publishing Corporation. He also has a stature of an entertainment journalist and pursued a career in film.
Of the more than a hundred articles he has written in his column that deal with China, fifty have already been published in an anthology titled China, “The Way, The Truth, and The Life.”
Email: contact@asiancenturyph.com
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