Dennis Gaviola

Article (news)

Salve Ibaňez

ABS-CBN News

To mark Chairman Francis Lim&#x27;s first year at the SEC, I asked him — plainly, because I couldn&#x27;t help myself — what made him pick a fight with the stock market&#x27;s own Iron Lady: Vivian Yuchengco, who has sat on the Philippine Stock Exchange board for 28 years, alongside a handful of equally entrenched colleagues. He didn&#x27;t flinch, which I half-expected and half-didn&#x27;t. Of course, he wasn’t picking a fight. He was simply correcting something that he believes has undermined market confidence in the stock exchange.   Lim was PSE president himself once — he knows this board, and he knows Yuchengco personally. None of that stopped him from pushing a new rule capping broker-director terms at 10 years, and he told me flatly he was prepared to be sued over it.   But the part he told me off-camera was the one I couldn&#x27;t stop thinking about. After the SEC&#x27;s memorandum circular came out, Lim ran into Yuchengco — and a handful of stockbroker-directors and market players — at a golf tournament. Of course, she was there.  Organizers herded them together for photos. &quot;Magbati na kayo,&quot; the crowd gently teased the way only Filipinos can. Yuchengco agreed to a real sit-down, and Lim followed up with a visit shortly after. Not long after that, the SEC released a statement: broker-directors overstaying their term would get a two-year transition instead of a hard cutoff.A golf photo op that turned into policy. Leadership, it turns out, is doing the unpopular thing — and still knowing when to make the visit first. Don’t miss out next week when The Boardroom launches.  <div>The Tourism Secretary who talks like a dealmaker </div>I&#x27;m already looking forward to grading Dita Angara-Mathay&#x27;s first year with high marks, because our new Tourism Secretary runs the department like a highly committed investment officer, not a brochure voice over artist — and honestly, that&#x27;s the exact instinct this country needs right now.The numbers she inherited make the case for her on their own. Tourism pumped nearly ₱4 trillion into the economy last year, supported by 7.7 million jobs — roughly one in every six working Filipinos. Tourism arrivals are still one of the lowest in the region. We could hardly hold a light against Malaysia, Vietnam, even Cambodia.   There are many gap, she told us in Business Outlook. One: connectivity. We&#x27;re an archipelago. Internet connectivity can be a challenge. We also need more flights, more routes, better ways to get people to the destinations that are supposed to be pulling them in. She&#x27;s building a team to match. Her new undersecretary, Stanley Ng, used to run Philippine Airlines. I didn&#x27;t think to ask her outright whether more Stanley Ngs are on the way, but she did mention in a previous statement, that her management team is already 80% filled — not bad for someone a few months into the job. The secretary is looking at co-branding programs with airlines, waiving fees, and pushing to get more airports &quot;night-rated.&quot; That last one sounds like a technicality until you learn what it means: night-rated airports are cleared for landings and takeoffs after dark, which turns an airport that runs six hours a day into one that runs eighteen. More night-rated airports, more flight slots, no new runways required. Then there&#x27;s the other gap, which she names as bluntly as any analyst would: investment. This, she said, is going to be an investment-led, infrastructure-supported industry, full stop. By 2028, the Philippines needs to fill a shortfall of 126,000 hotel rooms — which means resorts, luxury hotels, and the less glamorous stuff too, like sports and wellness facilities, the kind of infrastructure that turns a stopover into a stay. That brings me to timing, because we spoke just days after the President&#x27;s state visit to Japan, where Angara-Mathay sat in on a roundtable with the heads of Japanese conglomerates, megabanks, and tourism and tech companies. The pitch, she said, was simple: the President wants everyone — government and private sector alike — working as one unit, and Japanese executives responded to that. So much so that they agreed to come in as a group, which she said was out of character for them. The result: $3.4 billion in direct and indirect projects that will support tourism. She wants to replicate that playbook with other countries next, not just Japan. So the $3.4 billion number is now a floor in terms of pledges. And then there&#x27;s the story that tells you how she operates when no cameras are around. An MSME owner with zero personal connection to Angara-Mathay got a text out of nowhere — from the secretary herself — asking if they&#x27;d be open to putting their products on the shelves of a major Japanese retail brand. No introduction, no middleman. Just her, doing the legwork. Big roundtables in Tokyo, a text message to a small business owner who&#x27;s never met her — same instinct, different scale. That&#x27;s the kind of leadership our MSME-led tourism sector needs.

To mark Chairman Francis Lim's first year at the SEC, I asked him what made him pick a fight with the stock market's own Iron Lady.

To mark Chairman Francis Lim's first year at the SEC, I asked him what made him pick a fight with the stock market's own Iron Lady.

Boardroom Tea: SEC Chairman Francis Lim, ‘I was ready to be sued’

News

Entertainment

Lifestyle

Sports

Metro.Style

More

BINI

Sudoku

Word of the Day

Lotto

Horoscope

Business

Boardroom Tea: SEC Chairman Francis Lim, ‘I was ready to be sued’

Salve Ibaňez,

ABS-CBN News

Published July 29, 2026 10:23 PM PHT

Read More:

Boardroom Tea

tourism

PSE

SEC

Salve Ibanez

ABS-CBN Newsletter

Your go-to source for the latest news, entertainment highlights, exclusive interviews, and updates on your favorite Kapamilya stars.

ABS-CBN Newsletter

Your go-to source for the latest news, entertainment highlights, exclusive interviews, and updates on your favorite Kapamilya stars.

Sign Up

I have read and agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy.

ABS-CBN is the leading media and entertainment company in the Philippines, offering quality content across TV, radio, digital, and film. Committed to public service and promoting Filipino values, ABS-CBN continues to inspire and connect audiences worldwide.

Corporate

Investors

Governance

International Distribution

Corporate

Governance

Investors

International Distribution

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

AI Policy

Terms of Service

Advertise with Us

© 2026 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2026 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2026 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.