Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) director Eusebio Tanco declined his nomination for another term, citing delicadeza amid the stock market scandal involving his brokerage firm, Venture Securities Incorporated (VSI).

In a letter sent to PSE chairman Jose Pardo, Tanco said the “recent events which, unfortunately and unjustifiably, have besmirched the reputation of Venture Securities and its officers and employees compel me, out of delicadeza, to decline the nomination for membership in the board of the exchange.”

The PSE is set to elect new officers on July 1. Tanco has been PSE director since 2007.

Pardo described Tanco’s decision as a move to “take the moral high ground and not put at risk the reputation” of the PSE.

“All the more admirable because it was a decision he made without knowing the outcome of Nomelec’s (PSE Nominations and Elections Committee) decision. Truly laudable and a noble act,” Pardo said on Thursday, June 17.

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PSE president and chief executive officer Ramon Monzon earlier told Rappler that the PSE’s Nomelec and corporate governance committee met separately on Wednesday, June 16, to review Tanco’s post as director.

In the same letter, Tanco said VSI will contest the findings of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which led to the revocation of VSI’s license over its alleged role in the anomalous transactions of R&L Investments.

“Ventures was never involved in the fraudulent scheme…. [We are] as much a victim as the clients of R&L,” Tanco said.

“The exchange, after all, is bigger than any individual broker and it is my belief that all our efforts should be directed to the protection and preservation of the image of the exchange. My only wish is I or an acknowledgment that the real guilty parties will be called to account for this sorry state of affairs,” he said.

Tanco’s departure from the PSE comes almost two years after regulators found that VSI was involved in the financial deterioration of R&L.

Marlo Moron, a trading floor assistant and settlement clerk of R&L, illegally transferred shares to VSI under an account of a certain Julieto Sulapas, leading to a loss of P700 million in client shares.

The scheme, conducted from 2012 to 2019, led to the financial deterioration of R&L, one of the oldest brokerages in the Philippines.

The SEC revoked the licenses of R&L and VSI, and slapped penalties. VSI continues to operate as the decision is not yet final and executory. – Rappler.com