Two children of tycoon Lucio Tan were left out of Philippine Airlines board of directors, according to people familiar with the matter.
Sources said Vivienne Tan and Michael Tan were “not nominated” as part of PAL’s board of directors for 2020-2021.
Vivienne, Tan’s daughter with first wife Carmen Tan, is executive vice president/chief administrative officer of PAL. She will remain a director of Eton Properties Philippines and the Lucio Tan Group.
Michael, meanwhile, is a board member of PAL for 2019-2020 and will remain as president of the Lucio Tan Group and chief operating officer of Asia Brewery Inc.
Sources said the newly-elected board of directors of PAL Inc. include Dr. Lucio Tan, Carmen Tan, Gilbert Santa Maria, Mark Chen , Rowena Chua , Johnip Cua, Florentino Herrera III, Juan de Zuniga, Ryuhei Maeda , Lucio Tan III , Samuel Uy and Gregorio Yu.
Vivienne and John Tan informed the board of PAL Holdings Inc. of their withdrawal from nomination to the board for 2020-2021 for “personal reasons.”
Mark Chen, an independent director of PAL Holdings Inc., the parent company of PAL, also backed out from his nomination as a board director.
PAL Holdings confirmed comprehensive loss of $183.1 million in the first quarter ending March 31, 2020 that reflected the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline sustained a $14.7-million loss in the first quarter of 2019.
PAL said it registered a healthy net income of $37 million in January 2020, a 10-percent improvement from a year ago, before the pandemic forced a slowdown in February and the eventual suspension of domestic and international flights in March.
“To address the impact of the flight shutdown that persisted into April and May, PAL’s shareholders have infused new capital and endorsed an aggressive strategy to generate revenues and control costs, as the flag carrier gears up for a ‘new normal’ in air transportation,” PAL said.
The company said the other cost control strategies included a delay in the delivery of new aircraft, the suspension of capital expenditures, adoption of a skeletal work force set up during the current crisis period, cuts in senior management salaries and cutback on non-essential expenses.