Securities officials failed in meeting the various business organizations on Thursday but came away from the aborted session proclaiming their pro-business leanings, in contrast to claims that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is anti-business.
“We’re pro-business, we are not anti business,” SEC chairman Emilio B. Aquino said as he announced extending the deadline for non-compliant business entities to submit by November 6 the reportorial documents that are at the heart of the controversy. The original deadline will lapse at the end of October.
According to Aquino, the extension should allow the agency to obtain as much compliance from errant corporate entities this time than in the past.
“And then if we get more submissions, financial statements or general information sheets, it helps really strengthen and enhance our database and that is exactly our job. And that’s exactly how we want to empower our business sector as source of information,” he said.
SEC has reset the meeting with the heads of the various business groups who complained of the higher fees and charges and who only sent their representatives at the scheduled meeting.
Aquino said the higher fees and charges will help the agency boost its manpower that at only 670 employees is less than half the number the country’s neighbors have to date.
Commissioner McJill Bryant T. Fernandez noted the SEC and the irate business groups want to hear each other out.
The big-name business groups who complained of higher fees and charges include the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc., Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc., Employers Confederation of the Philippines, Management Association of the Philippines, Chamber of Thrift Banks, Philippine Retailers Association, Philippine Franchise Association, Philippine Association of Legitimate Service Contractors, Stratbase ADR Institute for Strategic and International Studies and Philippine Food Processors and Exporters Organization Inc.
