The MERALCO Stockholders Meeting, A Postscript

As advertised, so to speak, all the fireworks were there, and while Winston Garcia huffed and puffed, cried foul and was backed up by a clumsily issued SEC cease and desist order, the Lopezes, as press accounts have, were able to ‘maneuver’ the election of a ‘friendly’ new set of directors and retain management control of the nationa’s largest power distributor apart from owning and operating its own critically positioned independent power producers.

But the war isn’t over, just yet as it’s a certainty that Garcia will go back to the SEC and question the Lopezes’ defiance of the CDO and we predict, all the way to the Supreme Court.

Most certainly, too, yesterday’s circus will not ease the discomfort of MERALCO investors and arrest the erosion of the firm’s stock value which has shrunk by 24 percent since Garcia began his ‘crusade’.

The losers, or course, include the state institutions whose book losses now exceed 6 billion pesos.

Will Garcia reimburse Juan dela Cruz for these?