Ongoing PLDT job cuts have claimed eight VPs, so far

The latest manpower reduction program of PLDT has culled eight vice presidents from the officer ranks of the country’s largest telco company since last year.

According to regulatory disclosures, two of the officers had first VP ranks who followed the example of executive vice president Ernesto Alberto, after the 58-year-old ex-Citibanker “availed of the optional retirement” middle of last year.

One of the FVPs, Annette Yvette Tirol, was an exCitibanker like Alberto, heading the loyalty and rewards management program of PLDT until her departure.

PLDT in all had 42 vice presidents and 20 first vice presidents in 2019.

Alberto apparently did not pursue his earlier plan to seek “other opportunities within the First Pacific Group,” PLDT’s Hong Kong-based parent company, and has instead extended his “sabbatical” to see “more of the world, my children and my friends, and pursuing my hobbies – something which my pace and schedule did not allow much of in the past.”

According to the grapevine, Alberto is spending more time now in Subic, where he has a second home rather than be daily tormented by Metro Manila’s traffic.

As to the latest batch of officer retirees, three said their simultaneous goodbyes effective Jan. 1, after receiving their year-end bonuses.

PLDT later clarified that two of the three left “to pursue career opportunities,” instead of having gone into “voluntary resignation” as had earlier been announced.

It was not immediately clear how many in the rankand-file had availed themselves of the early retirement package, but the numbers could run to thousands, if the previous years were any indication.

The PLDT Group in 2018 had a total employee workforce of 14,701, down from 17,779 in end-2017 and 18,038 in 2016.

In contrast, Globe had 7,729 employees in 2018, an increase from 7,206 in 2017 and 7,180 employees in 2016.

Then again, PLDT is still laboring under the legacy effects of its fixed-line business, with a market share at 68 percent versus Globe's 32 percent.

Montinola drops out of BPI list

Retired BPI president, but still board director, Aurelio Montinola III has disappeared, apparently for good, from the Bank of Philippine Islands’s list of top shareholders.

Montinola was ranked 21st largest shareholder in 2017, with over 1.29 million BPI shares to his name. By March 2018, Montinola's pile, despite the stock awards given to bank directors, had dwindled to 847,952 shares, but still large enough to make the list.

But by last year, Montinola, now chairman of the Far Eastern University, had fallen off the list.

In contrast, his predecessor, Xavier Loinaz, who is also on the BPI board like Montinola, had even increased his stake to over 3.9 million shares by 2019, from 3.12 million the year before.

The Loinaz stash, if you had to ask, hovers around P265 million, a respectable neighborhood, indeed, even with today’s battered stock prices.

Heard through the grapevine

Unlike former Customs commissioner Angelito Alvarez who readily jumped over to SMC Logistics from Philippine Airlines after last year’s shock management changes at the flag carrier, former PAL president Jaime Bautista is enjoying his semi-retired status.

Bautista has been travelling both here and abroad, especially to Singapore, where his daughter and grandchildren live.

To keep him professionally occupied, Bautista is on the board of three schools, two non-profit foundations, and a cargo company, as well as a consultant to a listed company he would rather not name.

Alvarez, on the other hand, has his hands full as a managing director and head of strategic planning of SMC Logistics, formed to serve the logistical requirements of the San Miguel conglomerate, including the planned international airport.

E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com