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Home/ stevenwarran's Library/ Notes/ December 19, 1993, Seattle Times / Chicago Tribune, Pepsi Accused Of Faking Sabotage -- Philippine Police Allege Company Was Involved, by Uli Schmetzer,

December 19, 1993, Seattle Times / Chicago Tribune, Pepsi Accused Of Faking Sabotage -- Philippine Police Allege Company Was Involved, by Uli Schmetzer,

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December 19, 1993, Seattle Times / Chicago Tribune, Pepsi Accused Of Faking Sabotage -- Philippine Police Allege Company Was Involved, by Uli Schmetzer, 

MANILA, Philippines - A Philippine soft drink drama has taken a bizarre twist, with police accusing Pepsi Cola Products, Philippines, Inc., of bombing and sabotaging its own property to discredit an anti-Pepsi hit squad known as "Alliance 349."

A year after Pepsi trucks were dynamited and company property in Manila was torched, police allege that the attackers weren't the outraged winners of a prize Pepsi never paid but three saboteurs the company hired as it tried to wiggle out of a bungled promotion.

Artemio Sacaguing, chief of the organized crime division of the National Bureau of Investigation, alleged in a report to the Manila prosecutor's office last week that Pepsi hired the men as saboteurs and ran them under the code name "The Three Kings."

The Pepsi case outraged many Filipinos and sparked heated argument over whether a company is obliged to honor its advertised commitments and must be held responsible for errors, even if made by a computer.

It all began in May 1992, when Pepsi launched a promotion offering 1 million pesos ($36,400) to anyone who found the number 349 stamped inside the cap of a Pepsi bottle.

Thousands of euphoric people swamped company headquarters clutching their lucky bottle caps, and the company discovered that because of a computer software glitch, the winning number had been printed on 500,000 caps - meaning a potential outlay of $1.9 billion.

Initially, Pepsi contended that it was blameless. But more and more winners clamored for their prize and formed the Alliance 349 to push their claims. The Alliance held mass rallies. It hired lawyers.

The company offered 500 pesos ($19) to each winner. Many grudgingly accepted, but a belligerent sector of the Alliance held out for more. Pepsi property was bombed, and some delivery trucks were blown up.

This year, police arrested several Alliance leaders and charged them with causing physical injury and possessing explosives. But police now say they were duped by a key witness who turned out to be a Pepsi security guard. He implicated three men who confessed to having been hired by the company, police said.

"The people responsible for the bombing, burning and destruction of Pepsi properties were hired goons of Pepsi's management who were paid to create trouble during the (Alliance) 349 rallies so that the Alliance officers would be blamed for the trouble," said Sacaguing's report.

He reasoned that with Alliance leaders behind bars and discredited as "terrorists," Pepsi figured that remaining Alliance members would settle claims cheaply out of court.

A Pepsi lawyer, Dante Diaz, dismissed the police report. "As far as we are concerned, we have already established a prima facie case against the Alliance 349 officers, and it's up to them to contradict that," he said.

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on Jan 10, 13