BW Resources bares new president again after only 4 months

There has been another change at the top management of controversial gaming firm BW Resources Corp., barely four months since its former president and three other directors left the board in the wake of the high-profile probe over the alleged stock trading anomalies in the company.

In a disclosure to the PSE, BW assistant corporate secretary Jose Marie Quimboy said the company's board has accepted the resignation of Francis Ablan as president and elected Hanson So to succeed him. The 71-year-old Ablan, who used to head Caltex Philippines, replaced former president Eduardo "Moonie" Lim Jr. in late February after the latter filed a leave of absence as the heat turned up in the BW stock trading scandal.

Lim was among those indicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for a supposed conspiracy in dealing in BW stocks -- the most active issue at the PSE last year.

On the other hand, So was elected director along with Jimmy Gomez and BW accounting manager Gerardo Jose after three lawyers at the board -- Agnes Maranan, Owen Carsi Cruz and Ma. Paz Angeles -- similarly vacated their posts to concentrate on defending businessman and BW majority shareholders Dante Tan from the various cases that dragged his name in the scandal.

Before his appointment, So was acting as president of Rightland Corp., the owner of a 50-hectare land property in Pampanga, adjacent to the Clark Special Economic Zone, which BW has plans of acquiring through a share swap.

Despite the charges against Lim, the BW board had authorized him and So to "transact and negotiate business with PAGCOR," the anchor tenant in the company's ongoing Sheraton Manila complex project along Roxas Boulevard. The state gaming firm has agreed to lease out 30,000 sqm. of the area to serve as its future corporate headquarters.

At the same time, the BW board has agreed to mortgage the project in accordance with the construction agreement with Pentagold Construction Corp., an affiliate of the Swire Group of Companies.