Legarda urges big firms to elect more women to their boards

Senator Legarda has appealed to corporations, particularly the more than 200 listed companies on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), to elect more women to their governing boards.

She addressed her plea to both the management and shareholders of the firms after the senator learned that women occupy only 13 percent of all the seats for board directors of publicly traded companies.

Citing results of a survey conducted by her office on the gender composition of the boards of 202 publicly listed firms, Legarda said the results showed that men took up 1,631 board seats, or 87 percent of the 1,876 total posts available. Women occupied only 245 of the total board seats, or 13 percent.

Based on the survey results, PSE-listed firms each had an average of nine board members.

Of the 202 corporations surveyed, 65 had no woman at all on their boards, while 76 firms had only one woman on their boards.

Meanwhile, 31 firms had two women on their boards, 19 had three women on their boards, and 10 firms had four to five women on their boards.

“PSE-listed entities are highly regarded as forerunners of advanced corporate governance standards. They are definitely in an excellent position to serve as models for the rest of the corporate world,” Legarda stressed.

For starters, Legarda suggested that corporations seriously consider reserving for a woman at least one of the two board seats reserved for “independent directors.”

Under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules, publicly listed companies are required to allocate for “independent directors” at least two board seats.

An “independent director” is a non-executive director who is not directly associated with a major investor in the corporation, and who is not affiliated with the firm in any other capacity.

According to the survey, the country’s oldest and second largest lender – the Bank of the Philippine Islands – earned the distinction of having the most number of women on its board – with seven out of  15 seats occupied by women.