“The board then appointed Carrion to inform the Office of the President of the Board’s dilemma and of its need of the President’s guidance.”
by Ducky Paredes
Before the issuance of EO 636, the Philippine Mining Development Corporation (PMDC), formerly the Natural Resources Mining Development Corporation (NRMDC), under the DENR, exercised supervision over the mining sector. EO 636 transferred the PMDC to the Office of the President.
The PMDC is a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) with the primarily task of exploring, developing, mining, smelting and producing, transporting, storing, distributing, exchanging, selling, disposing, importing, exporting, trading and the promotion of gold, silver, copper, iron and all kinds of mineral deposits and substances.
Mining activities, already on the uptrend, are expected to further increase next year with more foreign direct investments flowing into the country.
Responsible mining has been touted by the Arroyo administration as the key to sustainable economic growth. The Philippines is the world’s fifth most minerals- endowed nation.
As a GOCC reporting directly to the President, the PMDC operates under certain constraints.
A good friend who was appointed by a former President to the board of a GOCC quit within a few weeks of his appointment. He complained that he did not see why he had to be appointed to the board when all of the board’s decisions were being made not by the board but in the Office of the President. He had discovered the reality of being a presidential appointee.
Within the board of the PMDC, most of the board would like to have one of their board members expelled. This is director Christopher Carrion.
The move stemmed from a Nov. 23 letter by Carrion to President Gloria Arroyo, which misled the chief executive.
The minutes of the Nov. 16 PMDC board meeting took up the matter of appointing a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In the end, the board noted that there was a “lack of appropriate guidance and information on the intents of PMDC by-laws” on the matter of appointing a CEO other than the PMDC president, who had already been appointed.
Thus, the Board decided to pass a resolution seeking the guidance of President Gloria Arroyo on the matter and even, should she wish to do so, her decision on who should be chosen as the PMDC CEO.
The board then appointed Carrion to inform the Office of the President of the Board’s dilemma and of its need of the President’s guidance.
What Carrion wrote President Arroyo instead was totally different. He told Gloria Arroyo that, during its November 16 executive session, the PMDC board had reached a decision to appoint PMDC Chairman Heherson Alvarez as PMDC CEO, in a concurrent capacity. The Carrion letter made it appear that the PMDC board had already selected a CEO in the person of Alvarez and that the board was merely informing the President about it.
Carrion wrote the President an unintended insult when he explained that, despite the board’s decision to appoint Alvarez as PMDC CEO, the President could still exercise the final option on the matter, being that the PMDC falls directly under the Office of the President.
If that were the case, why would the PMDC make a decision on the matter? Why not just let the President decide? By pre-empting the President’s decision, then, telling her that she could still countermand the board’s decision, doesn’t it look as though Carrion was treating the President like a petulant child that the PMDC Board was only humoring?
Remember, too, that this was not the intent of the Board. In fact, knowing that the President’s wish on the matter is a command to the Board the PMDC board deferred action on the matter pending a reply or decision from the President herself.
Carrion was misrepresenting the Board and feeding Gloria Arroyo total misinformation!
In fact, in the minutes of meeting, it was apparent that what the PMDC board arrived at was a suggestion that should there be no resolution on the matter coming from the Office of the President, the PMDC board suggested that it would designate the PMDC chair (Alvarez) as CEO and create the position of chief operating officer (COO) to be assumed by PMDC president Oliver B. Butalid.
But according to the PMDC board, it cannot just take this option since the normal procedure under their by-laws is for the PMDC president to be named concurrent CEO.
The board acknowledged that while it may designate the chair as CEO, such a course will require more than its approval, but also the amendment of the by-laws, the approval of stockholders and the concurrence of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Thus, PMDC insiders are wondering how Carrion totally misread the true intent of the board. Was this done purposely by Carrion, who is identified as an Alvarez boy?
The apparent attempt to pull a fast one on Malacañang may be an attempt by groups associated with Alvarez to take total control of PMDC.
PMDC may not be a high-profile government-owned and-controlled corporation, but it has a very important mandate, which is to help the mining industry grow with the end view of increasing government revenues and livelihood opportunities for Filipinos.
For this reason, the developments at PMDC are being closely watched by the private sector, especially mining players and investors.
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Col. Arsenio (Pamboy) Paredes, treasurer of the Federation of Philippine Amateur Senior Golfers, Inc. (FPASGI) took a hole-in-one January 9, 2007 at the 8th Hole of Kagitingan, the nine-hole Philippine Army Golf Course in Fort Bonifacio. This counted for the 17th hole in his 18-hole game and the distance was posted as 160 yards (but looked over 175 yards). Pamboy did it with a Callaway 4-wood and a Titelist #3 used ball that flew high before rolling right into the cup
In Pamboy’s flight were Jun Escano, Secretary of the FPASGI, Isidro Cruz of the Fort Bonifacio Seniors and myself.
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There is a healing mass tomorrow at 6:00 pm at the Ateneo-Rockwell Chapel for some of my sick classmates from Ateneo HS ‘55: Toots Abiva, Epoch Caedo, Poch Robles, Boy Jimenez and Tony del Rosario. Those of us who will not turn 70 this year will be 70 next year. We will have been out of high school 55 years by March 2010!
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hvp 01.09.08)
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