By MYLA IGLESIAS

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s foreign partner NTT DoCoMo yesterday elected to the country’s biggest telco board, Tony Tan Caktiong , chairman and CEO of Jollibee Foods Corp., the biggest fast food chain in the country.

Tan Caktiong owns one share of PLDT and 65 percent of Jollibee that outsells McDonald’s and KFC in the Philippines.

Tan Caktiong was voted in yesterday and he replaced PLDT senior vice president, corporate secretary and chief governance officer Ma. Lourdes C. Rausa Chan, as director.

PLDT spokesperson Ramon Isberto said Tan Caktiong’s entry is a welcome development. "His credentials speaks for itself", he said. The PLDT board accepted Rausa-Chan’s resignation as director last Monday, July 7.

Jollibee has over 1,600 stores locally and overseas, with brands like Chowking, Greenwich, Dèlifrance, Yonghe King, Chun Shi Tang franchise for China, Red Ribbon Bakeshop, and Manong Pepe.

Meanwhile, the PLDT board also declared cash dividends out of the unrestricted retained earnings as of December 31, 2007, for a total of P 12.4 million on all of the outstanding shares of the company’s Series IV Cumulative Non-Convertible Redeemable Preferred Stock, P1.00 per outstanding share.

In related development, PLDT units, Smart Communication Inc., and Pilipino Telephone Corp., (Piltel) mobile phone subscribers reached 33 million as of end June 2008, reflecting a net addition of over 1.6 million in the second quarter of the 2008.

As of end May 2008, PLDT wireless subscribers reached a total of 32.6 million from 30 million in end of last year.

PLDT has one of the biggest market capitalization in the Philippines. Its 13-man board reflects its diverse ownership.

Four of its directors are independent lead by Bienvenido F. Nebres, a religious, Oscar S. Reyes, who used to head Pilipinas Shell, Pedro E. Roxas of the Canlubang, Negros sugar family and Alfred V. Ty of Metrobank.

Helen Y. Dee represents the shareholdings of the Yuchengco family, the last remaining holdout of the original buyers led by Ramon Cojuangco, of PLDT from its American owners.

Tatsu Kono and Takashi Ooi represent the Japanese partner, NTT DoCoMo which owns over 17 percent of PLDT.

Corazon S. de la Paz –Bernardo represents the Social Security System.

Management is represented by Manuel V. Pangilinan, Napoleon Nazareno and Albert F. Del Rosario.

Tan Caktiong’s entry in PLDT, a friendly accommodation is a welcome respite from the past corporate wranglings in Meralco and even San Miguel Corp.’s history of warding off ‘hostile’ directors-investors.