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RETIRED
Justice Jose Vitug has resigned as corporate secretary
for the annual stockholders’ meeting of the Manila
Electric Co. (Meralco) on May 27.
Vitug,
who sounded hurt by the earlier statements of Government
Service Insurance System (GSIS) general manager Winston
Garcia, informed the board of his decision in a letter
dated May 21, a copy of which was obtained by the
BusinessMirror.
Despite
his resignation as secretary for the May 27
stockholders’ meeting, Vitug can still vote as
independent director of Meralco.
In a
phone interview Thursday night, Meralco senior
consultant Christian Monsod said Vitug will remain as
management consultant of the company. He confirmed,
though, that Meralco’s corporate secretary Enrique
Quiason resigned his post for health reasons.
“There
will be no vacuum left despite Justice Vitug’s
resignation.
The office of the corporate secretary would handle the
proceeding,” Monsod told the BusinessMirror.
On May
15, the board, in a special meeting, unanimously
appointed Vitug to be the corporate secretary solely for
the company’s forthcoming stockholders’ meeting.
“I read
a purported statement of Director Winston F. Garcia that
I am an uncooperative corporate secretary of Meralco.
Dir. Garcia also called me up some minutes ago telling
me that I have been remiss in any responsibilities as
the ‘Corporate Secretary.’ I reiterated to and reminded
Dir. Garcia that my agreement with the board, on which I
was categorical, was solely to be the secretary of the
annual meeting of shareholders on May 27, 2008 and
nothing more,” Vitug said in his letter to the board.
“Dir.
Garcia, however, feels differently. I would not want
this difference of opinion or misunderstanding to become
an issue now or later. Considering furthermore, that
Dir. Garcia represents quite a substantial equity
holding in the company, I see no other option but to
tender forthwith my resignation to the board.”
As if an
indication of the kind of tensions and intriguing that
the public may still expect in the run-up to May 27, a
flurry of text messages sent to newsmen and PR
practitioners Thursday night said Vitug was forced to
resign because supposedly, he could not withstand the
pressure “from Rosete” in the handling of proxies and
the supposed direction being taken to whitewash
wrongdoing by the Lopez Group. Anthony Rosete is the
assistant corporate secretary of Meralco. |
