First Pacific, MVP Group win 8 good-governance awards

MANILA, Philippines - First Pacific Co Ltd, a Hong Kong-based investment management and holding firm, and its MD and CEO, Manuel V. Pangilinan, led four of its businesses and two other top executives here in winning eight awards for this year from a prestigious regional journal, in recognition for their excellent corporate directorship and best practices in good governance.

With its diversified operations located in Asia, First Pacific was among the two dozen companies granted the “Asia’s Outstanding Company on Corporate Governance” award by the Corporate Governance Asia during formal ceremonies at the 10th Corporate Governance Asia Recognition Awards, on Oct. 24 in Hong Kong.

Pangilinan won the “Asian Corporate Director Recognition Award,” granted at The Best of Asia: 5th Asian Corporate Director of the Year Award 2014, which was held concurrently with the Recognition Awards, at Wanchai’s Renaissance Harbour View Hotel.

“I am happy for this recognition, and grateful that good governance is, indeed, in our corporate DNA,” he said. “I must congratulate also the First Pacific businesses here for their commitment to good governance, which demands competence with integrity; one without the other just won’t work.”

Jose Ma. Lim, CEO and president of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), the Manila-based investment holding firm of First Pacific, and his counterpart at the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), Oscar Reyes, were each given the same award, becoming two of the top executives from the Philippines based on the latest polls done by the region’s most authoritative journal on good governance.

Another company that Pangilinan chairs, Philex Mining Corp., won the “Asia’s Most Promising Company on Corporate Governance,” placing it among the region’s firms that follow the “path of good corporate governance” based on a new set of criteria—quality of management, business model, growth prospects, financial performance, and relative position in the industry.

“We welcome this recognition not as much as having another feather on our cap as a challenge for us to work harder toward fulfilling our adherence to good governance and responsible mining,” Eulalio Austin Jr., CEO and president of Philex Mining, said.

The “Asia’s Icon on Corporate Governance” award, on the other hand, was won by MPIC, Meralco, and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Co. for being consistent in fulfilling their commitments toward good governance.

Michael Toledo, media-bureau head of the MVP group of companies and SVP for Corporate Affairs at Philex Mining, said: “I have no doubt these awards will make us more resolute in our commitment to become better corporations not only in our core business operations but also in our relations toward our employees and other stakeholders, as we help in nation-building, economic progress, and environmental protection.”