Bid to disqualify some EPCIB directors nixed

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has thrown out the complaints filed by Trans Middle East (Phils.) Equities Inc. (TMEQ) regarding the qualifications of the incumbent board members of Equitable PCI Bank (EPCIB).

In a letter to EPCIB president and chief executive officer Rene J. Buenaventura, the BSP said "the grounds (for disqualification) cited by TMEQ do not provide regulatory basis for their disqualification."

TMEQ filed a disqualification complaint with the BSP against the present composition of the EPCIB board. TMEQ is represented at the EPCIB board by Martin Romualdez and owns an eight-percent equity in the bank.

The BSP said the policy-setting Monetary Board, in a Sept. 7 resolution, decided that Corazon de la Paz possessed the qualifications, and none of the disqualifications, based on the TMEQ complaints.

"The case of De la Paz does not apply since the position of a chairperson is not considered an officer under EPCIB’s amended by-laws," the MB said.

TMEQ had questioned the chairmanship of De la Paz, the president and chief executive officer of the Social Security System (SSS), but the present board argued she was not employed by EPCIB as an officer, hence no conflict in her being a government employee.

Likewise, the BSP said the TMEQ complaint against Teresita T. Sy, Josefina N. Tan, Edmundo L. Tan and Antonio A. Henson, as regular directors, "do not provide regulatory basis to disqualify."

It also dropped the same complaints against Peter D. Garrucho Jr. and Jesus G. Tirona as independent directors, and Sabino E. Acot Jr. as corporate secretary.

"Alberto V. Reyes, Teodoro B. Montecillo and Antonio C. Pacis as members of the advisory board are neither directors or officers , hence not subject to MB confirmation," the MB added.

Romualdez was installed as interim chairman of EPCIB during the bank’s tumultuous May 2005 stockholders’ meeting by a breakaway faction led by state pension funds SSS and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

However, the aggressive entry of the SM Group, which bought the entire 25-percent stake of the bank’s founding Go family, changed the composition of the 2006 board. De la Paz was named chairperson while Teresita Sy and Winston Garcia were named co-vice chairman.

Sy represents the interests of the SM Group which now controls a majority stake in EPCIB. Garcia is the president and general manager of the GSIS, holding 13.7-percent equity. The SSS controls about 28 percent of the third largest commercial bank in the country.