PLDT financial execs depart after budget fiasco

MANILA, Philippines — Key executives of telco giant PLDT Inc. have left their posts either through voluntary resignation or early retirement following the budget fiasco that hounded the firm.

PLDT yesterday informed the Philippine Stock Exchange that its senior vice president and chief procurement officer Mary Rose dela Paz has resigned from her roles effective April 14.

Likewise, PLDT vice president Wilson Bobier left the Pangilinan-led telco starting April 16.

On the other hand, PLDT senior vice president and network head Mario Tamayo took an early retirement effective April 14. PLDT senior vice president, chief financial officer and chief risk management officer Annabelle Chua had earlier taken an early retirement starting April 16.

PLDT vice president Alexander Kibanoff has quit the telco by availing of its manpower reduction program. PLDT issued no explanation on the en masse departure of its key executives.

In spite of this, PLDT assured investors that financials, operations and performance will remain the same even with the resignation and retirement of the five officials.

“These events are not expected to have any significant impact on the company’s current or future operations, financial position or results of operations,” PLDT said.

Last year, PLDT shook the capital market when it reported a P48-billion budget overspend traced to its capital expenditures from 2019 to 2022.

In March, however, PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the capex overrun was cut to P33 billion as a result of negotiations with major vendors. PLDT also trimmed its capex for this year to a range of P80 billion to P85 billion, from a high of P96.8 billion in 2022.

Pangilinan also said an investigation done by an external agency found no evidence of fraud in the budget breach. PLDT, however, admitted that it procured too many assets, particularly 5G sites, and failed to maximize them due to the slow adoption of the market.

In transitioning to new technology, PLDT had to write off P51.2 billion in legacy assets, such as P9.7 billion in VDSL network and P9.4 billion in 3G equipment, causing a 60 percent decline in its 2022 net income.

PLDT expects to return to free cash flow by 2024 at the earliest, as it seeks to resolve the budget overrun by then to nurse its financials back to the pink of health.