First Philippine Holdings names 18 nominees for 15 board seats

Insider Spotlight

• FPH has 18 nominees competing for only 15 board seats, meaning at least three will miss out if the board limit stays unchanged.
• Five names are new to the slate: Roderico Puno, Lee Benjamin Lerma, Rene Almendras, Jose Ramon Garcia and Evelyn Singson.
• The vote follows Roberta Feliciano’s resignation after Crème’s Lopez Inc. stake sale, while Francis Ed. Lim had separately left after becoming SEC chair.

First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH) has nominated five new names to its board slate, putting 18 candidates in contention for just 15 seats at the Lopez-led conglomerate’s upcoming stockholders’ meeting on Sept. 25 this year.

The new nominees are former energy secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras, Rayomar president Jose Ramon R. Garcia and Dusit Thani Philippines vice chair and president Evelyn R. Singson, who are running as independent directors.

Also nominated are Puno Law managing partner Roderico V. Puno, a former FPH vice president for legal who helped draft the landmark 2001 power reform law, and Romulo Law partner Lee Benjamin Z. Lerma, whose practice covers corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, infrastructure and real estate.

FPH is the listed holding company of energy giant First Gen Corp. and real estate developer Rockwell Land. It is controlled by listed Lopez Holdings, which in turn is controlled by Lopez Inc., which is undergoing an ownership revamp with the entry of tycoon Ramon S. Ang. 

Federico "Piki" Lopez 

FPH chair, CEO 

They new nominees join returning nominees Federico R. Lopez, Benjamin R. Lopez, Francis Giles B. Puno, Richard B. Tantoco, Emmanuel Antonio P. Singson, Mercedes Lopez-Vargas, Miguel Ernesto L. Lopez, David O. Chua and Diana V. Pardo-Aguilar.

Returning independent nominees are Stephen T. CuUnjieng, Jaime I. Ayala, Cirilo P. Noel and Cielito F. Habito.

With FPH’s by-laws providing for a maximum of 15 directors, the 18-person slate means at least three nominees will not secure board seats unless shareholders approve a change in the board’s authorized size.

Roberta L. Feliciano is no longer among the nominees after resigning as director effective Aug. 9 following Crème Investment Corp.’s sale of its shares in FPH parent Lopez Inc. to Ang. 

Francis Ed. Lim, who was among last year’s independent directors, had separately resigned after his appointment as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

—Edited by Miguel R. Camus