Salary & Compensation of top CEOs in the Philippines

October 12, 2011 

Most of us know Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Danding Cojuangco, Tony Tan Caktiong, Manny Pangilinan, Andrew Tan and various others who head the largest corporations in the Philippines. We know how daunting their task is of managing their companies on a daily basis striving to achieve profitability and to maximize their shareholders’ wealth.

Given the enormity of their roles, we are curious: How much are they paid as President or Chief Executive Officers of these companies?

Of course, getting that specific information is close to impossible because they wouldn’t divulge their salaries in public, in the same way that most Filipinos evade the question when asked how much they make. Fortunately for us, the annual reports their companies submit to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) contain pieces of information from which we can extrapolate their compensation.

Public companies are required to show, as a lump sum figure, the total annual compensation of the highest executives of the firm. What we did was divide this figure with the total number of top executives identified to yield the average annual compensation of each top officer. Of course, the CEO’s compensation is sure to be higher than the average figures in the table below because, as highest officers of the company, CEOs generally earn the most among all members of top management.

Monthly Salary and Total Compensation

The executives are ranked in the table below based on their monthly salaries, although the total compensation earned in 2011 is also identified. Monthly Salary refers only to the basic pay they receive every month, while Total Compensation includes bonuses such as thirteenth-month pay and other non-recurring pay items such as performance incentives and stock options.

Since there are thousands of corporations in the Philippines, we limited our analysis to the 30 public companies that comprise the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi). The results are summarized below.

Highest Paid CEOs in the Philippines (2011)
(in Philippine Pesos; only for the 30 PSEi companies)

Rank	Name	Position	Company	Stock Code	Salary per Month	Bonus/Other Compensation per Month	Total Compensation per Month
1	Federico R. Lopez	Chairman & CEO	First Gen Corporation	FGEN	1,792,400	1,194,933	2,987,333
2	Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala	Chairman & CEO	Ayala Corporation	AC	1,658,333	759,722	2,418,056
3	Eduardo M. Cojuangco, Jr.	CEO	San Miguel Corporation	SMC	1,583,333	745,833	2,329,167
4	Aurelio R. Montinola III	President & CEO	Bank of the Philippine Islands	BPI	1,504,432	310,581	1,815,013
5	Nestor V. Tan	President	Banco de Oro	BDO	1,235,500	618,000	1,853,500
6	Antonino T. Aquino	President & CEO	Ayala Land Inc.	ALI	1,115,833	47,619	1,163,452
7	Arthur Ty	President	Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company	MBT	984,500	404,833	1,389,333
8	Tony Tan Caktiong	President & CEO	Jollibee Foods Corporation	JFC	964,255	551,958	1,516,213
9	James L. Go	Chairman & CEO	JG Summit Holdings	JGS	958,115	15,167	973,282
10	Manuel V. Pangilinan	President & CEO	Manila Electric Company	MER	950,000	433,333	1,383,333
11	Napoleon L. Nazareno	President & CEO	Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company	TEL	916,667	1,000,000	1,916,667
12	Harley T. Sy	President	SM Investments Corporation	SM	610,219	127,135	737,354
13	Ernest L. Cu	President & CEO	Globe Telecom	GLO	600,000	250,000	850,000
14	Manuel V. Pangilinan	Chairman	Metro Pacific Investments Corp.	MPI	588,060	336,172	924,232
15	Gerardo C. Ablaza Jr.	President & CEO	Manila Water Company	MWC	539,103	242,949	782,051
16	James L. Go	Chairman & CEO	Universal Robina Corporation	URC	521,000	11,500	532,500
17	Lance Y. Gokongwei	President & CEO	Cebu Air Inc.	CEB	484,631	41,042	525,673
18	Erramon I. Aboitiz	President & CEO	Aboitiz Power	AP	427,000	127,667	554,667
19	Federico R. Lopez	Chairman & CEO	Energy Development Corporation	EDC	362,000	1,031,667	1,393,667
20	Isidro A. Consunji	President & CEO	DMCI Holdings	DMC	326,949	59,963	386,912
21	Andrew L. Tan	President	Megaworld Corporation	MEG	325,915	162,779	488,694
22	Hans T. Sy	President	SM Prime Holdings	SMPH	322,917	114,583	437,500
23	James L. Go	Chairman & CEO	Robinsons Land Corporation	RLC	312,225	2,619	314,844
24	Rogelio R. Cabunag	President	SM Development Corporation	SMDC	259,261	80,591	339,852
25	Manuel V. Pangilinan	Chairman & CEO	Philex Mining Corporation	PX	226,667	113,333	340,000
26	Erramon I. Aboitiz	CEO	Aboitiz Equity Ventures	AEV	203,287	48,568	251,855
27	Isidro A. Consunji	Vice-Chairman & CEO	Semirara Mining Corporation	SCC	162,609	854,345	1,016,954
28	Enrique K. Razon, Jr.	Chairman & President	International Container Terminal Services	ICT	150,877	490,351	641,228
29	Willy N. Ocier	Vice Chairman	Belle Corporation	BEL	145,716	17,451	163,167
30	Andrew L. Tan	Chairman & CEO	Alliance Global Group, Inc.	AGI	*	*	*

* Andrew Tan does not receive any compensation as Chairman and CEO of the holding company AGI. The company’s policy is that executives earn fixed salaries per month from the respective subsidiaries or businesses they handle.

Highest Earners: Lopez, Ayala, Pangilinan

Data show that 49-year-old Federico Lopez earns the most both in terms of monthly salary and total compensation in 2011. In the 30-company PSEi list, Lopez is head of two firms: First Gen Corporation (FGEN) and Energy Development Corporation (EDC). As Chairman and CEO of FGEN, his basic monthly salary is around P1.79 million. Yup, that’s P1.79 million basic salary per month. He receives another P1.19 million per month as bonus and additional compensation. All in all, he gets more than P3 million every month as FGEN’s chief executive. The same position in EDC gives him an additional P1.4 million every month. Considering only these two companies, Lopez earns roughly P4.4 million monthly — more than any other CEO on the list.

The sixth richest Filipino, Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, is the second-highest paid CEO on the list. As Chairman and CEO of the conglomerate Ayala Corporation, he earns more than P2.42 million total compensation every month, inclusive of a monthly basic salary of P1.66 million.

Manny Pangilinan or MVP is Chairman and CEO of three companies on the list, making him the third-highest paid CEO with a combined total compensation of P2.65 million per month. This is inclusive of his monthly basic salary of P1.76 million in those companies. His basic salary is P950,000 per month as head of Meralco; more than P588,000 per month as chair of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPI); and around P230,000 every month as CEO of Philex Mining Corporation.

Another highest-paid chief executive is Danding Cojuangco of San Miguel Corporation. As CEO of the diversified conglomerate SMC, he gets P1.58 million salary per month plus P746,000 additional compensation monthly, for a total of P2.33 million every month.

Other CEOs holding multiple positions on the list and their compensation are:

• James Go, Chairman and CEO of JG Summit Holdings (JGS), Universal Robina Corp. (URC) and Robinsons Land (RLC) — total compensation of P1.82 million per month, roughly the same as his basic monthly salary;

• Isidro Consunji, CEO of DMCI and Semirara Mining Corporation (SCC) — total compensation of P1.4 million per month, inclusive of basic monthly salary of around P490,000;
• Erramon Aboitiz, CEO of Aboitiz Power (AP) and Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) — total compensation of P806,000 per month, inclusive of basic salary of P630,000 monthly.

There are many ways to become rich. Our data above showing each CEO’s monthly salary and total compensation are proof that heading a company is one of them.

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Sino ba ang may kasalanan bakit ilang tao lang ang mayaman sa Pinas ngunit ang nakararami ay naghihirap at mga pulubi?

Ang puno ng mga ito ay tayo rin ang may pagkakamali. Dahil ito sa ating mentality at attitude. Ito ang mga ilan;

1. ASA mentality. Gusto nating madali ang buhay o ayaw maghirap sa pamagitan ng pag-aasa sa ibang tao, gusto natin lagi lebre, at hingi. Ang ibang lahi nag-iingat sa kanilang dignidad na wag manghingi kaya kung mababa ang tingin sa atin ng ibang bansa tayo ang nagturo ng ganoong treatment kasi pulubi lang ang laging nanghihingi. Mahilig tayo magpapaawa minsan gusto natin ikwento ang kahirapan para tulungan. Ang ating them song ay bahay kubo at anak na walang pinag-aralan.

2. Utak mangangamuhan. Ang ating education system ay design para mangamuhan kaya nasa utak ng bawat bata habang nag-aaral pagdating ng araw hahanap siya ng amo para isandal ang kanyang hanap buhay. Magpakahirap siya para payamanin ang kanyang amo. We thought it is easier to expect monthly salary than to take responsibility and to have effort in being creative.This mentality resulted our nation to be left behind economically.

3. Utak stone age. Akala ng marami stone age pa rin ang pilipinas na lalakad lang sa bandang bukid may pagkain na. Marami sa atin ay hindi nagpaplano, hindi nagiipon, walang vision paano umangat. Kapag may sahud na uubusin lahat paggastus, kontento na basta may sahud buwanbuwan, may iphone o ipad makapaglaro sa internet o makapagchat hindi tinitingnan ang bukas na pagdating ng araw hindi na siya puede magtrabaho. Ganoon din ang karamihan pag-uwi sa Pinas, fiesta araw-araw at kung pabalik na uli sa abroad mangutang kasi ubus na pera.

4. Hindi mahilig sa negosyo (kasi nga masmadaling umasa o maging dependent). Ang ibang bansa mahilig sa negosyo kaya sa Pinas ang mga may-ari ng negosyo ay foreigner at mga pinoy ang empleyado (utusan). Ang problema gusto nating yumaman habang nagtatrabaho gusto malaki ang sahud kaya welga ang kahahantungan resulta ng pagsasara ng maraming companya. Hindi natin binalikan sa pag-iisip na napakaliit ang tsansa na makamtan ang magandang buhay sa pamamagitan ng pagiging empleyado liban kung ikaw ay maging CEO. 

Marami pang factor bakit tayo naghihirap ngunit yang mga nabangit ang pinaka basic ng mga dahilan.

Ang tanong, kailan ba tayo mag-isip? Kailan ba tayo kikilos para umangat ang ating sarili? Kung baguhin natin ang ating mindset after 5 years to 10 years mayroong mangyayari.