Court junks suit to void elections of PSE non-brokers

The Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) has dismissed for lack of merit the court case filed by former Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) president Ramon Garcia seeking the nullification of the elections of the eight non-brokers in the PSE board.

In a 10-page order, Judge Jose R. Hernandez of Branch 158 said Garcia and co-plaintiffs former PSE chairperson Trinidad Kalaw and former PSE governor Joseph Roxas failed to raise the issue beforehand with the PSE’s nominations and elections committee (Nomelec), whose decision was upheld by the court.

"There being no objections then, no objections should be entertained now," Hernandez said.

Last March, Garcia sought an injunction seeking the nullification of the March 9 elections of eight non-broker directors at the PSE board and calling for a new election to subject them to the votes of the general membership.

Apart from the non-brokers, the complaint was also directed at the old PSE board chaired by Felipe Yap and members of the Nomelec, whom the three accused of arbitrarily trimming the list of non-brokers. Garcia was one of the original list of 19 candidates for the eight non-broker positions.

In the committee were former PSE corporate secretary and Nomelec chairman Edgardo Guevarra, along with brokers Emmanuel Edward Co, Alenjandro Yu, Alejandro de Castro and Joseph San Pedro.

Garcia reasoned his exclusion from the list of nominees and his disqualification as candidate for such position was done arbitrarily, whimsically and for no valid reason at all.

Despite having served in the PSE board as a non-broker director, Garcia was disqualified since he was connected to a securities firm, RTG and Co., where he was corporate nominee until his appointment in May 2000. The same issue is being leveled against incumbent PSE president Ernest Leung, who was ex-officio chairman of DBP-Daiwa Securities until June last year.

The petition claimed that since Garcia was deprived of his right to participate as a bonafide stockholder of PSE, the "elections" of the non-brokers should be declared null and void "because they were not actually elected by the stockholders of PSE."

The eight non-brokers led by Leung are being blamed in particular by the group of Robert Coyiuto Jr. for swinging the vote on the PSE chairmanship, which the latter lost to old rival Vivian Yuchengco whose slate got fewer broker representations in the board.