3 VPs leave as PLDT starts manpower reduction plan

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has started cutting senior positions in its organization, part of an ongoing manpower reduction scheme as the company disclosed weaker 2014 results while underscoring continued challenges this year amid intensifying competition.

The country’s biggest telecommunications provider said in a stock exchange filing Monday that three vice presidents were resigning effective May 1, 2015. It described their departure as a “separation from service.”

The officials are PLDT first vice presidents Anna Isabel Bengzon and Miguela Villanueva while Jose Apelo, a vice president, was also leaving his post, the filing showed. No replacements were announced in the filing.

PLDT spokesperson Ramon Isberto said in an interview Monday that Bengzon would maintain her job as chief financial officer of TV5, the television network under Mediaquest Holdings Inc., the media holding company held by PLDT’s beneficial trust fund.

“PLDT has an ongoing manpower reduction program and the officials cited have availed (themselves) of the MRP package,” Isberto said.

He clarified that the manpower reduction program was still ongoing and that Bengzon, Villanueva and Apelo were among those who have availed themselves of package so far.

Isberto said the job cuts were part of a period assessment done by PLDT. He declined to comment on an earlier item in Inquirer’s Biz Buzz column that the cuts were part of a broader management reorganization at PLDT.

Still, the development comes as PLDT reported a decline in earnings for 2014, partly as the company spent more to protect its market share with growing competition from main rival Globe Telecom. The business has also been rapidly changing with the popularity of mobile Internet and over-the-top players like Facebook and messaging applications disrupting the traditional voice and text messaging business.

PLDT said in a previous filing that 2014 core profit was down 3 percent to P37.4 billion “due mainly to the rise in cash operating expenses, an increase in product subsidies and a higher provision for income tax.”

PLDT reported that net income last year was down 4 percent to P34.1 billion while total service revenues rose 1 percent to P165.1 billion.

PLDT chair Manuel V. Pangilinan said in the stock exchange filing that “higher depreciation costs and financing charges which, along with ongoing efforts to defend our market share, will impact our bottom line.”

For 2015, Pangilinan said earnings would end at around P35 billion. However, “beyond 2015, we see brighter prospects for PLDT.”