The Philippine Stock Exchange released today a seemingly innocuous “Memo for Brokers” numbered 2009-0383, listing the results of its latest internal audit on broker-members, their violations and the penalties imposed – see http://www.pse.com.ph/html/NewsRoom/memos/2009/MEMO_2009-0383.pdf

ATR-Kim Eng, where President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s younger brother Diosdado Junior is a board director and the senior managing director, was found to have committed  five violations from February 1, 2008 to January 31, 2009. This roughly covers the same period when President Arroyo’s stock holdings showed a dramatic surge to P110.4 million,  from P62.9 million in 2007.

Among the violations that ATR-Kim Eng committed was that “some officers/salesmen maintained joint accounts with their relatives.” In the interest of transparency and accountability in public governance, perhaps President Arroyo’s brother could come forward and say whether he performed such a service for his <span style=”font-style:italic;”>ate</span> (older sis).

Four other violations his firm committed were:
Failure to properly time stamp order tickets. Improper flagging of transactions for the account of officers/salesmen and of foreign client transactions. Failure to recognize monthly unrealized gain/loss on its marketable securities in its system-generated trial balance.

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism claimed the Arroyo couple was reported to have used two other trading firms.

When the Arroyo couple’s lawyers, Romulo Macalintal and Ruy Rondain,  were recently asked how the First Couple’s stock holdings grew, both told the media to go to the stock exchange and see for themselves.
Now is the right time to do that, with the exchange having released its latest audit – http://raissarobles.com/