My first year as SharePHIL president

Earlier this month, the Shareholders’ Association of the Philippines, now popularly known as SharePHIL, conducted its annual general membership meeting. The occasion was graced no less than by BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr., who graciously shared with us BSP’s investor education program, a topic that is close to the heart of our young organization. Our mantra is shareholder empowerment through education.

I reported to the members on the status of my agenda as SharePHIL president. If the readers of this column may recall, I call my agenda BE FAIR, which represents broadening our membership base, entering into strategic partnerships, fostering pro-shareholder reforms, accessing investor-related information by the investing public, instituting investor education and relations program, and rolling out the SharePHIL’s 20-year roadmap. The papers and a major business magazine reported on this agenda at the outset of my presidency last year.

Membership base

My thrust is to recruit members truly committed to SharePHIL’s vision and mission to help SharePHIL gain traction. I reported that we were able to recruit 15 new members, thereby bringing our total membership for our young association to around 80 members. Our new members include marquee names in the capital market and investor education such as former SEC chair Fe Barin, Dino Bate of COL Financial, Jonathan Moreno and Jojo Dispo of the First Metro Investments Corp.

Strategic partnerships

We entered into strategic partnerships with the Securities Investor Association of Singapore (SIAS) and the Fund Managers Association of the Philippines (FMAP). SharePHIL is modeled after SIAS whose mantra is investor education and collaboration with listed companies (“resolve issues in the boardroom rather than in the courtroom”) as a means of promoting shareholders’ rights. I often say that we can talk about shareholder rights year in and year out but without the buy-in of our listed companies, we will not achieve much in making respect for shareholder rights as part of corporate culture. Our keynote speaker for “SharePHIL Summit 2014,” our very own MVP of the Metro Pacific Group, and Mr. Christopher Cheong, founding member of SIAS, gave special messages on their experiences and importance on promoting and protecting shareholder rights.

Pro-shareholder reforms

SharePHIL petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reinstate the “stakeholder” principle in the Code of Corporate Governance, the deletion of which in 2009 caused the country to go down in ranking in the area of corporate governance. SharePHIL members have also been attending annual stockholders’ meetings to help educate shareholders how to attend such meetings and ask intelligent questions from management. Sadly, our minority local investors have sometimes been described as “snackholders” which we at SharePHIL intend to change through our investor education program.   We have, together with the Philippine Stock Exchange, taken issue with the Alphalist circular issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for being anti-investor. I also reported to the membership that SharePHIL is supporting SEC’s initiative to revise our more than 30-year-old Corporation Code.

Investor-related information

SharePHIL was able to install its website where investor-related education materials are uploaded. Articles on the stock market and corporate governance are now accessible through the SharePHIL website at www.sharephil.org.

SharePHIL launched its first book called “Your Best Guide to Stock Market Investing, the Shareholders’ Handbook” authored by one of its members, Mr. Celso Vivas. To start SharePHIL’s investor relations program, the Metro Pacific Investments Corporation will conduct a briefing for local investors this year.

SharePHIL roadmap

We launched our strategic plan to achieve SharePHIL’s vision and mission by 2020. Its vision is that “by 2020, SharePHIL shall be the leading institution and catalyst in the protection and promotion of shareholder rights, duties and responsibilities.” Our “mission is to be a major player in promoting domestic capital market development through advocacy, education and enlightenment of shareholders.” My FAIR agenda is geared toward the attainment of this vision and mission.

Modesty aside, SharePHIL has undertaken major projects the past year. Of course, there is still a host of challenges ahead of us but with political will, we should be on our way to achieving SharePHIL’s vision and mission.

(The author, former president of the Philippine Stock Exchange, is now the president of SharePHIL and a senior partner of the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW). The views in this column are exclusively his, and should not be attributed in any way to the institutions with which he is currently affiliated. He may be contacted through [email protected].)