Editor?s Note: Corrects earlier story which reported shares will be suspended Friday.

MANILA, Philippines ? (UPDATE) The Philippine Stock Exchange suspended the trading of Manila Electric Co.(Meralco) shares on Wednesday "until further notice" after its central depository group recommended several measures to prevent the actual trading of the company's shares.

The move came after Land Bank of the Philippines, a government-run bank and Meralco minority shareholder, cried foul over the sudden cancellation of its shares on the eve of a deal with other government financial institutions to sell their shareholdings to a group believed to be allied with food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp.

In a memorandum issued to brokers Wednesday, the PSE cited a letter from the Philippine Dealing System (PDS) which stated that as a depository, it could take preventive action to ensure the protection of investors.

The PSE on Tuesday suspended the trading of Meralco shares from 9AM to 10AM.

Meralco had cancelled about 42 million Meralco shares owned by Land Bank and issued new shares in favor of Josefina Lubrica, citing an Oct. 24 order of the Regional Agrarian Reform Adjudicator regarding contested land under the government?s agrarian reform program.

Land Bank opposed the cancellation and asked the PSE to suspend, in particular, its 42 million shares from being traded on Tuesday.

PDS said it would take the following steps:

*allow deposits of Meralco shares into its vaults if the participant certifies to the PSE and the Philippine Depository & Trust Corp. that the securities were not issued to Josefina Lubrica;

*disallow the conversion of shares of Meralco into actual ownership from the depository; and

*refrain from downloading electronic information of ownership of shares under the name of the broker which involve Meralco shares to the Securities Clearing Corporation of the Philippines for clearing.

"These actions will ensure the integrity of an audit trail that will allow both our institutions to trace the movement of these securities should any contamination occur, " Vicente Castillo, chair and chief executive of the PDS said.