Business tycoon John Gokongwei Jr. told The STAR that as far as he is concerned, the matter is already closed.
It will be recalled that in June of last year, First Pacific agreed to sell part of its 24.4-percent stake in PLDT to the Gokongwei Group, following an invitation made by First Pacific controlling shareholder Anthoni Salim to long-time acquaintance Gokongwei to make an offer.
However, the Gokongwei Group withdrew its offer late last year after the failure of First Pacific to convince the PLDT board and management to agree to the sale and to allow a due diligence investigation of the countryís biggest telecommunications company.
Gokongwei revealed that the last time he talked to Salim was during the Chinese New Year celebration abroad. "But we never talked about business," he told The STAR.
He said that he intends to enjoy the next five years of his life, take extended pleasure trips abroad, "while I am still strong."
Gokongwei stressed that the ownership issue of PLDT is something that Salim and PLDT president and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan, who is also executive chairman of First Pacific, will have to work out.
JG Summit chairman James Go, in a separate interview with The STAR, said that the incident last year took a heavy toll on his brother emotionally that he doubts seriously that he will agree to undergo the same experience again.
Pangilinan, for his part, said that he is convinced that First Pacific is not interested to sell its stake in PLDT at this time, especially with the Hong Kong-based firm’s strategy to expand its telecommunications business in the region. "It will be difficult to have a regional telco strategy without PLDT," he said.
The PLDT chief executive said in an interview that part of First Pacific’s strategy is for the Philippine telco to enter into strategic alliances or partnerships with other telcos in the region, such as Tele-kom Malaysia.
There have been reports, however, that Telekom Malaysia was already in final talks with First Pacific for the former to acquire the latter’s interest in PLDT.
Pangilinan said that the board discussions were either deliberately or unintentionally taken out of context. "There is no way that a government-owned telco like Telekom Malaysia will acquire PLDT nor will PLDT agree to be bought by the Malaysian firm," he said.
PLDT is holding its stockholders meeting and election of directors sometime in June and speculations already abound that First Pacific is out to nominate people to the PLDT board who will not oppose the sale of its stake.
Pangilinan admitted he is concerned why there are some people in First Pacific who want to destroy him. "As I’ve already said, I will resign if they ask me to. But what is clear is that I will always have the interest of PLDT in mind first before anything else. And I will never be anybody’s puppet," he said.
He told The STAR that he and Salim are now on speaking terms, but admitted that the relationship was never the same. "So much has happened since the Gokongwei buyout incident. But Anthoni and I have known each other for so many years, longer than the other people in First Pacific, and despite what happened, that friendship will never change," Pangilinan said.