BIZ BUZZ: Tectonic shift at MVP group
A big change is about to happen at the MVP group of companies as one of its most important and longest serving officials will soon step back from the daily grind during a critical period of transition—or some would say “upheaval”—at the conglomerate.
Biz Buzz learned that Meralco president Ray Espinosa will soon relinquish his post as head of the country’s largest electricity distribution utility, even as the group is making a fresh push into the energy sector.
Espinosa, at 67, is now two years over the 65-year-old retirement age usually applied in Philippine firms. But that doesn’t mean Manuel Pangilinan’s chief legal eagle will soon be riding off into the sunset.
We’re told he will continue to be part of the MVP group in “various capacities,” meaning he will almost certainly be appointed director of one company or another within the conglomerate. And it will still be an exclusive arrangement, which is bad news for other firms which may have been thinking of hiring Espinosa for his legal expertise.
For those who don’t know, Espinosa was a bar topnotcher in 1982. And when we say “topnotcher,” we don’t just mean “top 10.” We mean he ranked first in the bar exam that year, which probably explains why he was the legal head of the MVP group for over two decades.
And who will take Espinosa’s place at Meralco? We hear that the MVP group is now searching for the appropriate candidate to fill the big shoes that “RCE” (Espinosa’s initials) will vacate but, for the meantime, the distribution utility will be headed by—you guessed it—the 76-year-old Pangilinan himself.
The changeover will be made official at the company’s next stockholders’ meeting, we hear. What’s in store for Meralco after this key leadership change? Abangan!
—Daxim L. Lucas
FZA back in circulation
Billionaire Fernando Zobel de Ayala (FZA) might have eased back from day-to-day corporate duties at the Ayala Group, but he remains active especially during the company’s important milestones.
Recently, he joined project managers and Ayala executives to inspect the Healthway Cancer Care Hospital of Ayala Healthcare at the Arca South project in Taguig City.
The 100-bed facility will be the country’s first ever dedicated cancer hospital. It is now 75 percent complete and is expected to open in the third quarter of 2023.
“Soon, hundreds of Filipino cancer patients will have access to high quality but affordable cancer care,” Zobel said.
Once opened, the Healthway Cancer Care Hospital will offer the full range of services from screening, diagnosis, treatment, to postcancer care.
It will also be equipped with 18 chemotherapy infusion units, two linear accelerator radiation machines and other critical diagnostic and imaging equipment.
More than treating and hopefully curing diseases, the hospital will be “focused on improving the overall patient experience and enabling multi-disciplinary cancer care.”
AC Health CEO Paolo Borromeo said part of their goal was to bring down the cost of cancer treatments and care.
“Our goal is to offer the best value private hospital for cancer care. We are working with our partners to ensure that our cancer hospital will provide very competitive rates for diagnostics, radiation, chemotherapy and surgery to a broader base of Filipino patients,” Borromeo said.
