SEC hails Yuchengco, Coyiuto move to end feud

The Securities and Exchange Commission expressed confidence yesterday that the recent decision of Philippine Stock Exchange chairperson Vivian Yuchengco and director Robert Coyiuto Jr. not to seek another term in the upcoming elections of the bourse, would bring back much-needed liquidity in the market.

SEC Chairperson Lilia R. Bautista said the move could be the much-needed impetus to perk up activity in the market. "This augurs well for the market and will imbibe confidence in the market. Hope everyone will make sure that there will be no more factions in the PSE," she said.

"If they can just show that they can work together, then I think people will start getting interested in the market," Bautista said.

President Arroyo said in a speech at the PSE last Friday that the move would, in effect, "remove the poison in the stock market" which has long been suffering not just from the negative developments in the corporate and economic fronts but also from the internal conflict within the board of directors, leading to the stalling of policy reforms and other vital measures to prop up the market.

Yuchengco, a former president of the pre-unification Makati Stock Exchange, and Coyiuto, the first PSE president in 1992 and its chairman in 1994, have been at loggerheads with each other since the former was elected chairman in March last year.

Coyiuto lost in his bid for the chairmanship although his group dominated the brokers elected by the PSE members to the board, winning five out of the seven slots. Yuchengco, however, won on the support of the majority of the non-broker directors led by PSE president Ernest Leung. – Zinnia dela Peña