Calata Corporation is not Under Investigation-Joseph Calata

It's not an old story when a celebrity or a booming company would be rumored about a certain scandal or would be investigated for something. There would always be people who would question as to why a company is reaching a high peak or why a certain actor is famous and the likes. No matter what or why, there would be something. However, what makes these rumors worse are the people who spread them without really looking into it and hearing every side of the story.

 In Joseph Calata's case, his company is said to be under investigation for stock manipulation as their corporation skyrocketed to a huge number then instantly fell down in a span of days. Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone made the appeal about the stock manipulation through the House Resolution 2647, which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) answered immediately.

Calata Corporation started their stock shares at P7.50 and stabilized to P24, giving the company a market cap of P4.32B. However, at some point, the company fell almost 26 percent to P5.65 each and declined as much as 32 percent earlier in the session, hence, making people assume a stock manipulation within the company. The accusations claimed that some of the stocks might have been sold to dummy accounts.
Jose Fabella, Calata Corp's Corporate Secretary stated that it was Joseph Calata, the corporation's chairman and president, himself who called and requested the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) to look into the reason behind the surprising behavior of the shares.

The 31-year-old CEO defended his company in an interview saying that the corporation itself was not the one being investigated but the shares and the shareholders. Joseph Calata also said that they were not even aware that there was already an alleged probe on his 10-year-old company. He claimed that the buying and selling in the trades by other shareholders was beyond his control and that if the company itself was under investigation, they would have been notified but that was not the case.

"Ang CMIC (Capital Markets Integrity Corp) ay para sa mga brokers, para sa mga traders wherein nag-IPO (Initial Public Offering) kami, marami bumili ng stocks namin and siguro sila naglaro at nagbili, buy-sell, buy-sell, 'yun ang tinitignan nila, not 'yung company. [The CMIC is for brokers and for traders wherein we did an IPO. There was a lot who bought our stocks, and they probably played by continuous buying and selling. That's what they are investigating, not the company.]" says Calata in an interview with ANC.

The issue can be a bit misleading to everyone who will hear about the accusation abruptly, but if people would look deeper into it and listen to the statements claimed by the Calata Corporation Board, they would see that it was proven that the company is not part of the investigation.