SCP, the country’s largest steel mill, was one of the flagship projects of President Fidel Ramos to respond to the country’s increasing need for steel products.

Its integrated plant in Balayan, Batangas has wide-ranging manufacturing capabilities to produce cold-rolled coils and coated steel sheet products.

The SCP, however, has been lately getting a pounding from giant creditors and the judiciary, which it thought were its “salvation.”

As Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla put it: “Banks access knowledge about their debtors, conspire with judges to lower the value of targeted companies, conspire with justices to shut out appeals, and then proceed to take over. It is piracy, corporate buccaneering, pure and simple.”

The SCP’s woes started in 1997, when the Asian financial crisis struck, causing the devaluation of the Philippine peso against the US dollar.

SCP incurred foreign exchange losses of some P1.3 billion and suffered project delays as costs of equipment and construction soared, said Antonio M. Lorenzana, SCP executive vice president and chief operating officer.

He said while the SCP struggled against the effects of recession, it managed to pay the interest on its loans religiously.

The company also sought to restructure principal payments through an Omnibus Agreement with its creditor-banks on December 2002.

Not all of the creditor-banks complied with the agreement, particularly Equitable PCI Bank, which was undergoing a transfer of ownership to BDO at the time.

Lorenzana said Equitable-BDO, “with undue haste,” filed a petition to place SCP under receivership before the Batangas special commercial court under Judge Maria Cecilia Austria.