A letter addressed to PSE chairperson Ma. Vivian Yuchengco, whom the two merely addressed as a director, Edwin Luy of Triton Securities and Eddie Gobing of Lucky Securities said they are declining their appointments as treasurer and assistant treasurer, respectively, pointing out that they cannot work with Yuchengco "while a cloud of doubt still looms over her election."
"In keeping with our belief that you were not gifted with the mandate of the stockholders to lead the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), which was given to the Coyiuto group, we decline our appointment as treasurer and assistant treasurer of the PSE," the two said.
In the first PSE board meeting since the tumultuous March 9 general elections, the PSE board on March 13 elected Luy and Gobing as officers of the Exchange. The other officials include Ernest Leung as president; Francisco Villaroman as corporate secretary; and Aissa Encarnacion as assistant secretary.
Yuchengco won as PSE chairman over old nemesis Coyiuto by a slim 8-7 vote of the 15-man board immediately following the March 9 elections. But the Coyiuto group, which cornered the majority of the seven seats reserved for broker-directors, contested the voting process, venting their ire on the non-broker-directors led by Leung.
"The matter of her election is still under question. Rather than create more confusion later on, it would be to the best interest of the Exchange if we just decline our appointments," Luy said.
The Coyiuto group noted that since it won five of the seven seats for brokers, it clearly has the mandate of the PSE member-brokers, pointing out that Coyiuto himself got more votes than Yuchengco.
They also chided the non-brokers, whose votes swung the result in favor of Yuchengco, saying that if they want to disregard the mandate of the stockholders, they should have submitted themselves to the voting process.
Although the non-brokers have the right to vote, Coyiuto and his camp said since they are not elected by the stockholders anyway, they should have waived their right out of delicadeza and left it to the brokers themselves to settle the chairmanship.
Due to the controversy, there has been an increasing clamor for the resignation of Yuchengco, Leung and the rest of the non-brokers, although the corporate regulator Securities and Exchange Commission and other PSE officials have affirmed the election results.