Some house-cleaning

At least three executives of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd. are a goner.

Chief officer Michael Healy, general counsel Ronald Brown, and vice-president for communications Rebecca Brown are expected to be out of First Pacific in a week or two. But right now, they are no longer performing their usual duties and are simply paving the way for their smooth exit.

Sources from the grapevine say that First Pacific controlling shareholder Anthoni Salim had to ask the so-called ‘three musketeers’ to leave the company after top management led by executive chairman Manny Pangilinan got hold of documented evidence to finally prove once and for all their suspicion that the three were behind a campaign to destroy Pangilinan and discredit him in the eyes of Salim.

The three even reportedly hired a Manila-based PR person just to engage in black propaganda against Pangilinan.

Finally cornered, the three executives agreed to just leave First Pacific. And as soon as word about their exit leaked, share prices of First Pacific in Hong Kong went up, proof that the market was satisfied that the internal squabbling in the company is finally over and management can finally concentrate on moving forward.

First Pacific is no longer the regional powerhouse that it used to be in the early ’90s. Its major assets are actually down to two: World’s top noodle maker Indofood based in Indonesia, and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) where it has a 24.4-percent controlling interest. After the Indonesian government asked the Salims to pay a huge indebtedness to the state, news spread that First Pacific was selling its stake in PLDT and in Indofood to bail the Salims out of the financial quagmire they are in. First Pacific would be nothing without PLDT and Indofood.

As it turned out, First Pacific’s bid to deliver PLDT to the Gokongwei group did not materialize. The Salims were able to raise the money to pay the Indonesian government from an undisclosed source. Indofood remained intact. And First Pacific is expected to have received $90 million in cash from the Ayala Land-Greenfield Development Corp. consortium last Friday in exchange for a 50.4-percent stake in Bonifacio Land Corp. (BLC). First Pacific controls Metro Pacific Corp. which in turn owns more than 70 percent of BLC.

And now, First Pacific top management, led by Pangilinan, is now focused on rebuilding First Pacific’s image. Using PLDT and Indofood as the core businesses, First Pacific will attempt to become a major regional telecommunications and food company. But there it can achieve this, First Pacific had to do some house-cleaning. Pangilinan cannot succeed in his task if Healy and Ron Brown keep pulling him down. So they had to go.

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