The Securities and Exchange Commission will probe possible trading irregularities of PLDT Inc. shares regarding a recently reported P48-billion capital expenditure overrun incurred by the company in the last four years.
“The reported ‘budget overruns,’ as well as the selloff in PLDT shares before the publicly listed company could make the official disclosure, are areas of concern for the Commission, being the regulator of the securities market and the champion of investor protection in the country,” SEC said in a statement on Monday.
“In this light, the SEC has immediately commenced an inquiry into the matter,” it added.
The SEC asked PLDT to clarify its disclosures to the Commission and The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. relating to the nature of the P48 billion expenditure.
The SEC has likewise directed PSE and Capital Markets Integrity Corporation to submit initial reports on their investigation into the trading activities that have resulted in the sudden and sharp decline in the share prices of PLDT before the official disclosure of the “budget overruns,” among others.
CMIC acts as the independent audit, surveillance and compliance arm of PSE, in line with its mandate to reinforce the confidence of the investing public in capital market institutions.
Resolve violations — SEC
As a self-regulatory organization, CMIC is tasked to enforce Republic Act 8799, or the Securities Regulation Code and the pertinent rules and regulations.
Among its powers and functions is to investigate and resolve violations by trading participants of the securities law as well as trading-related irregularities and unusual trading activities involving issuers.
The SEC, through its Markets and Securities Regulation Department, will closely monitor the investigation and will continue to conduct a parallel, independent inquiry into the matter to safeguard the interest of the investing public.
Last Friday, PLDT announced that it launched an investigation after the management found out that the company incurred a whopping P48 billion “budget overrun” in the last four years.
PLDT said the budget discrepancy represented 2.7 percent of its total P379-billion capital spending budget.