|
THE pay
and perks which Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT)
paid Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of the board, and 22
other top executives and directors surged to P878
million in 2007, according to a filing posted Thursday
on the web site of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
The
filing showed the compensation of Pangilinan and company
is 3.338 times the amount they got in 2006 when PLDT
paid the group P263 million, which, in turn, was
22.89-percent up from P214 million in 2005.
PLDT did
not disclose how much each got in compensation in the
last three years. But averaging the amount—which may not
necessarily be the correct way to determine how much
Pangilinan actually got—each should have received
P38.174 million in 2007, P11.435 million in 2006 and
P9.304 million in 2005.
In
summing up its executive compensation, PLDT said it paid
its CEO, key officers and all other officers and
directors—referring to all officers—P479 million in 2006
and P1.604 billion in 2007. This year all these officers
will get an estimated P556 million, which will consist
of P257 million in salaries, P63 million in bonuses and
P236 million in “other compensation.”
Last
year’s pay and perks of PLDT’s highest-paid executives
also topped by 12.132 percent, or P95 million, the
company’s estimate of P783 million. The estimate is
contained in PLDT’s annual report which has been posted
on the PSE web site since
April 16, 2007.
Is the
huge compensation the reward for a job well done, as
profitability has been driving up PLDT’s market
performance which had plunged to below P200 in the early
2000s?
This
year the PSE market monitor showed PLDT hit a high of
P2,910 on February 27, then dropped to a low of P2,600
on March 18. It closed Thursday at P2,790 after opening
at P2,770. It peaked at P2,795 and fell to a low of
P2,750 during the session.
PLDT,
now back as the market’s most reliable blue chip,
reported net income of P35.978 billion in 2007, up 1.802
percent from P35.341 billion in 2006. In 2005 it
registered net profit of P34.502 billion.
These
profits resulted from surging revenues—P146.102 billion
in 2007, P137.304 billion in 2006 and P132.527 billion
in 2005.
The
audited financial report also showed PLDT paid income
taxes of P11.424 billion in 2007, up 38.188 percent from
P8.267 billion in 2006, which, in turn, was down 14.966
percent from P9.722 billion in 2005.
A
company’s executive compensation as disclosed by listed
companies to regulators consists of salaries, bonuses
and other compensation.
In the
case of PLDT, the filing showed salaries represent the
basic pay, which in 2007 amounted to P126 million, down
from P123 million in 2006. PLDT said it also paid its
top managers bonuses—including longevity pay—of P32
million in 2007 and P31 million in 2006.
PLDT
said the biggest pay and perks were classified under
“other compensation,” which totaled P720 million for the
group in 2007 and P109 million in 2006. It estimated the
amount for 2008 at P117 million.
The
“other compensation” includes variable pay and other
payments,” PLDT said in a footnote to the filing on
compensation. “Variable pay is based on an annual
incentive system that encourages and rewards both
individual and group/team performance and is tied to the
achievement of Corporate, Unit and Customer Satisfaction
Objectives.”
As a
perk, PLDT said variable pay “covers regular officers
and executives… and is based on a percentage of their
Guaranteed Annual Cash Compensation.”
PLDT
also said the pay perks defined as variable pay and
other payments also include Long Term Incentives Plan,
or LTIP, in 2007. |
