PSE defers election of new president

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has deferred until Tuesday next week (Dec. 4) the election of a new president as its board of directors said it "needed more time to know the candidates more."

This developed as the PSE board yesterday called off the election despite today’s deadline earlier given by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which threatened to appoint an acting president should the PSE fail to do so.

But PSE corporate secretary Edgardo Guevarra said some board members were able to convince SEC Chairman Lilia Bautista to hold off the appointment of an interim president until next week.

The election for the PSE presidency now boils down to two strong contenders, both of whom held the post of finance secretary under different administrations: Jesus Estanislao and Ernest Leung. A top banker, Peter Favila, was also mentioned as a possible candidate but the board is likely to choose from only between Estanislao and Leung.

Estanislao, who was the chief architect of the Corporate Governance Code, was Finance Secretary during the Aquino administration and is currently CEO of the Institute for Corporate Directors. Leung, on the other hand, served as Undersecretary to Estanislao and was briefly appointed to the top Finance post during the Ramos government. He then went on to serve as president of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. and chaired the Development Bank of the Philippines.

Estanislao is reportedly being backed by influential board director Robert Coyuito Jr. of R. Coyuito Securities while Leung has the backing of PSE chairman Felipe Yap.

"It (the postponement) is to give the board more time to meet with the prospective candidates. It’s only fair to know them first before voting for them," Guevarra said.

He added that if they still cannot arrived at a consensus by Tuesday, the SEC would likely appoint one of its commissioners to oversee the Exchange in an interim basis.

The PSE presidency has been vacant since early October due to the decision of then president Ramon Garcia to go on an indefinite leave until his term expires in March. Garcia was earlier booted out unceremoniously by the board – where he is also a director due to the controversy over the Fort Bonifacio relocation agreement. However, Garcia was reinstated two weeks later.

Since then, the day-to-day operations of the PSE has been handled by a six-man management committee headed by Yap himself, along with five other board members.

The PSE president will reportedly received between P6 to P7 million in annual compensation.