‘Danding’ retains chairmanship of SMC for 3rd year

Despite the government’s last-ditch efforts to wrest back its voting rights, San Miguel Corp. (SMC) chairman and chief executive officer Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco retained his post for the third consecutive year during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday.

Cojuangco, SMC’s single largest stockholder with 20 percent outstanding shares, secured the fresh mandate to lead the food and beverage giant as majority of a 15-member board remained by his side.

As expected, the meeting turned into a "proxy war" as the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) demanded that government be given the right to vote for the 27 percent in sequestered shares under the coconut levy funds.

Barely five minutes into the meeting, PCGG Commissioner Ruben Carranza raised a motion seeking for the authority to vote on behalf of 14 companies (with more than 659 million common shares) under the Coconut Industry Investment Fund.

Carranza cited a PCGG resolution that revoked the rights of proxies or nominees of the Estrada administration to vote the SMC shares, and instead authorized only him or PCGG Chairman George Sarmiento.

In SMC’s 15-member board, five directors, who are nominees of the previous administration, represent the PCGG’s 27 percent block, namely: Benjamin Paulino, Hermogenes Tantoco, Allan Lee, Raul de Guzman and Espiridion Laxa.

Two other board seats are held by nominees of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Social Security System (SSS), represented by the heads of the said pension funds.

Both SSS and GSIS raised manifestations to assign proxy votes in favor of GSIS vice president Roberto Malonzo to secure additional rights for another board seat, which, if successful, would enable the state to gain eight seats, or a majority in the board.

The PCGG earlier nominated five directors to replace the five holdovers, namely: former SSS chairman Renato Valencia, banker Octavio Espiritu, Ret. Col. Leo Alvez, Franklin Fuentebella and former Justice Hector Hofileña.

Except for the SSS and GSIS representatives, the rest of the board, including those from the PCGG, are Cojuangco allies, namely: SMC vice chairman Ramon Ang, SMC president Francisco Eizmendi, Manuel Cojuangco, Faustino Galang and former Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza.

Carranza had insisted that since there was a new administration, the PCGG nominees have lost their authority to represent the sequestered shares, an issue pending in the Supreme Court.

Citing time constraints, the Court of Appeals denied yesterday morning the petition of the GSIS to stop the meting until the issue of the proxy votes has been resolved.