No plan to replace Dizon as PNB president — Camacho

Despite persistent rumors, the Arroyo administration said it has no intentions of replacing Francisco Dizon as one of its nominees to the Philippine National Bank (PNB) board of directors.

In a telephone interview, Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho said there were no plans to nominate a replacement for Dizon and the only change in the government slate was the nomination of Ricardo Tan, president of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Co. (PDIC).

Tan would be nominated in place of former government nominee, Norberto Nazareno who retired as PDIC president late last year. Tan was appointed early this year to replace Nazareno in PDIC.

According to Camacho, who is still in the US for the final leg of his trip, Dizon would still be in the slate together with Tan.

However, Camacho did not indicate whether government would continue supporting the chairmanship of Lorenzo Tan, whose continued tenure depended on whether he would be supported unanimously by majority shareholder Lucio Tan.

"We have no problem with Mr. Dizon, I don’t know of any reason why he should be replaced," Camacho said.

However, the market has been rife with rumors that Dizon would be replaced to maintain the working relationships between government nominees in the PNB board and the nominees of Lucio Tan.

The selection of the members of the 11-man PNB board is a complicated process of mutual acceptability, ensuring that any nominee would have to be acceptable to both the government and the Tan group.

PNB is scheduled to hold its stockholders meeting today. – Des Ferriols