PLDT Inc. said Tuesday it expects to save P7 billion over the next five years from the planned manpower reduction of its IT department.
“It’s progressing reasonably well and we aim to sign the relevant agreements with IBM by the end of June,” PLDT chairman and chief executive Manuel Pangilinan told reporters at the sidelines of the stockholders’ meeting in Makati City.
“Not all of the IT people will move to IBM, some will be retained. We have to retain the so-called brains of the IT organization,” he said. PLDT has over 1,000 IT personnel.
“We estimate over P7 billion [in savings]. It’s quite substantial. It will not happen in one year but several years, at least five years,” Pangilinan said.
Pangilinan said besides manpower reduction, the company would also cut expenses on travel, seminars, symposia, foreign trips and essential entertainment.
PLDT also implemented a salary increase freeze in the last two years.
“Everybody is pitching in, in terms of helping out in the opex [operation expense] reduction ,” he said.
PLDT put a new leadership team in place at the start of 2017 to ensure its continued income recovery.
“This new team has brought new ideas, new ways of working, fresh perspectives and a variety of skill sets and experiences. We’ll continue to develop our people, to ensure that we’re constantly poised to deliver on innovative growth,” Pangilinan said.
“This isn’t easy for PLDT―as large and as old and as profitable as it is―to accept that change is needed. But we remain idealists about our future―as we were in our past –with no illusions that failure to transform will mean extinction. Disruption is the key to survival and revival in this new day and age,” he said.
PLDT, partly owned by Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd. and Japan’s NTT group, earlier reported a net income of P4.95 billion in January to March, down 20 percent from P6.21 billon it earned in the same period last year.
Core profit, which excludes foreign exchange gains or losses and other non-recurring income, also dropped 26 percent to P5.3 billon from a year earlier.
The company is maintaining a profit guidance of P21.5 billion this year, despite the lower first-quarter profit.(D. Amojelar, MS)
