Coyiuto seeks deferment of PSE meet to elect Camacho replacement

The Robert Coyiuto Jr.-led group of brokers sitting at the board of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has asked for the deferment of the special meeting scheduled today for the election of a non-broker director to replace Mario Camacho.

In a letter to the PSE, Coyiuto and his allies – Eddie Gobing, Federico Lim, Harry Liu and Edwin Luy – said the request has become necessary "in deference to the untimely death of our colleague."

Camacho, a former president of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), passed away last Friday, April 12 and will be interred today at the Loyola Memorial Park in Sucat, Parañaque.

"He is not even buried and there is already a rush to fill in the vacancy. We believe that in keeping with the Filipino sense of delicadeza and in keeping with our culture to observe a period of mourning, the special board meeting should be deferred until after the lapse of a reasonable time," the group said.

Coyiuto lost his bid for the chairmanship of the PSE to long-time rival Vivian Yuchengco in a hotly-contested fight, which had the non-brokers, led by PSE president Ernest Leung eventually siding with Yuchengco.

This development, in turn, led to the filing of a court case by Coyiuto symphatizer and former PSE president Ramon Garcia, who was disqualified from running as a non-broker director. Garcia had questioned before the court the process of arbitrarily appointing the eight non-broker directors in the 15-man board without subjecting them to an election by the PSE members.

The Pasig Regional Trial Court has reset the hearing on the case tomorrow (Thursday) to decide on the merits of a possible temporary restraining order (TRO) against the eight non-brokers and the holding of a special elections.

Besides Leung and Camacho, the other non-brokers includes Cayetano Paderanga, Eugenio Lopez III, Fr. Joaquin Bernas, Peter Favila, Tomas Apacible and Monico Jacob.