Paul Rodriguez | Photo by Sugbo News
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc has disqualified a Cebu-based shipping operator running for public office in Mindanao, despite being pursued by two government banks over soured loans that his company obtained over a decade ago.
The commission en banc, on April 11, 2025, upheld the decision of the Comelec Second Division disqualifying Camiguin congressional aspirant Paul Y. Rodriguez on questions surrounding his residency. Rodriguez’s shipping company, Asian Maritime Transportation Corp. (AMTC), is headquartered in Mandaue City, Cebu.
On April 23, the Comelec en banc declared that its decision to disqualify Rodriguez from running for Camiguin’s lone congressional district was “immediately executory.”
This latest setback appears to show that Rodriguez’s legal troubles are far from over. Both state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) are pursuing legal remedies to recover nearly P5 billion from AMTC, which took out loans as early as 2009. In various loan documents from both state banks, Rodriguez is addressed as president and chief executive officer of AMTC, which has a registered address in Cebu City.
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According to the company’s website, AMTC “provide[s] end-to-end transport and logistics services as well as shipping services for inter-island passengers and cargoes, being the largest ship-tonnage owner and operator in the Philippines, serving 32 ports of call.”
Super Shuttle RORO is a brand under AMTC, which, according to the company website, has four operational routes ferrying passengers and cargo from Camiguin to Cebu and Bohol. It also transports cargo and other materials.
On December 6, 2024, DBP sent AMTC a final demand to settle its “past due loan obligation” amounting to P1.479 billion as of October 31, 2024. The bank tagged AMTC’s account as “past due” since January 31, 2019, meaning the company had failed to make payments as stated in its loan agreement with DBP. It is also important to note that the loan account was classified as past due by the bank one year before the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted business—particularly the transportation and logistics sector.
“Should you fail to make payment or otherwise disregard or ignore this demand, we shall be constrained to initiate, without further notice, the appropriate action in court as may be necessary to enforce and protect the Bank’s interest, including the foreclosure of your mortgaged properties and filing of a criminal and/or civil case for collection with damages against you, in which case we shall hold you liable for all incidental and legal expenses, including attorney’s fees,” wrote the DBP in its communication to AMTC.
The bank sent similar demands to AMTC Vice President for Administration Gloria Seno; Rodriguez’s wife, Maria Cecilia, who is also AMTC Executive Vice President and Treasurer; and Gold Star Properties Corporation, which entered into a suretyship agreement with the bank and AMTC. A suretyship agreement is a contract in which a third party pledges to pay a debt should the principal debtor fail to settle their obligation.
Prior to the December 6, 2024 letter, DBP also communicated with AMTC, seeking clarification on how a supposed payment was applied to their loan account and proposing a face-to-face meeting to discuss a potential way forward with the company’s obligation to the bank.
“The bank had been very considerate to AMTC by giving it more than enough time to settle its obligations by approving the 1st restructuring of its past due obligation in July 2019,” DBP wrote, pointing out that the proposed restructuring “was not implemented because of AMTC’s continued failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the said restructuring.”
“Despite the above, [DBP’s Remedial Management Department (RMD)] afforded AMTC another five years to submit a viable payment proposal through a series of discussions and negotiations, the latest of which was RMD’s face-to-face meeting with you as AMTC’s president and chief executive officer on April 24, 2024, wherein you were asked again to submit a viable repayment plan, for which you reluctantly replied that you are unable to submit the same as AMTC is still struggling from the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the bank pointed out.
“The discussions and/or negotiations pertaining to AMTC’s past obligation with the bank cannot go on indefinitely. The bank had already afforded AMTC more than enough time to settle its past due obligation,” DBP said.
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At least six ships of AMTC were used as collateral to secure the loans, documents showed.
In one of the letters AMTC sent to DBP, Rodriguez admitted the company did not have the cash to settle its past due obligations with the bank, but he reiterated his appeal to “mutually find ways that will allow us to make payments to the extent that we can without crippling or totally stopping the operations of the company.”
“As we have no current means to pay this amount,” Rodriguez wrote in his letter to DBP dated September 16, 2024—about two weeks before the start of the filing of certificates of candidacy for the 2025 elections—“we implore you to reconsider your decision and give us the opportunity to sit down with you.”
For its part, LBP sent a separate demand to AMTC on December 13, 2024, to pay its loan obligation to the bank, the outstanding principal of which has reached “P3.413 billion exclusive of interests, penalty charges and advances.”
AMTC’s account with LBP includes a short-term loan line and seven term loans, most of which were taken from UCPB, which has since been merged with the state lender. LBP noted that AMTC’s loans had been restructured on December 23, 2019, and September 30, 2022.
To secure the loans, AMTC attached as collateral 12 ships used for its operations, five tractor heads, a forklift, and two pieces of property in Batangas.
It appears that Rodriguez was busy mounting a political campaign for the lone congressional district of Camiguin province instead of settling his past due loans with both the DBP and LBP. With collection notices falling on deaf ears, it may only be a matter of time before the banks take control of AMTC’s mortgaged assets. /clorenciana
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