MANILA, Philippines – On August 9, First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH) told the stock exchange that one of its directors, Roberta Lopez-Feliciano, had resigned, effective immediately, in a letter dated the same day. The filing gave a reason in a single sentence: Feliciano was stepping down because Crème Investment Corporation had sold its shares in Lopez Inc., the private company that sits at the top of the Lopez corporate structure.

This is the first on-the-record confirmation that a sale of Lopez Inc. shares has actually taken place, after weeks in which the possibility circulated in market chatter and brokerage commentary without a single company confirming it directly. The sale was significant enough to prompt a board resignation. And it does not say whether FPH, or any of the listed companies beneath Lopez Inc. in the ownership chain, considers this sale to be a change in control.

What ‘Item No. 4’ means, in plain terms

Every Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form 17-C lists which numbered item it is reporting on, out of a standard menu of disclosable events set by regulators. FPH’s August 9 filing is logged under Item No. 4, which covers changes in a company’s directors or officers. It is not logged under the item that covers a change in control of the company itself. In practice, that means FPH has told the exchange about a resignation and the reason given for it, but has not made a separate statement saying that control of Lopez Inc., or of FPH, has changed hands.

That could mean several things, and right now there is no way to know which from the filing alone. It could mean FPH does not believe the sale amounts to a change in control under the rules. It could mean the company is still assessing the transaction and has not reached a conclusion. Or it could mean a separate disclosure is coming and simply had not been filed as of this writing. 

The stock exchange’s own disclosure rules require listed companies to promptly tell the public about specific events, including a change in control, and separately require a company to speak up and clarify matters once a report about it is already circulating, even if the company has not confirmed anything itself. Whether those obligations have been triggered here, for a sale that happened two layers above FPH rather than at FPH directly, is an open legal question this story will return to once more facts are confirmed.

Who is Crème?

Crème Investment Corporation holds 25.68% of Lopez Inc., the privately held family holding firm that sits two levels above First Philippine Holdings on the ownership ladder, with Lopez Holdings sitting in between as FPH’s immediate parent. 

Roberta L. Feliciano, known as “Berta,” was the one Crème shareholder who sat on FPH’s board, representing the branch descended from Eugenio “Geny” Lopez Jr., the same branch led by her brother Gabby. That is what makes her resignation carry more weight than a routine board departure. When Crème sold its stake in Lopez Inc. to tycoon Ramon Ang (story on this to follow), the Geny branch did not just cash out of the family’s top holding company. It also lost its only seat at FPH, an operating company two levels below.

The rest of FPH’s board draws from the other three family branches unevenly, alongside several directors who are not Lopez family members at all. Federico “Piki” Lopez himself chairs the board. His brother, Benjamin Ernesto R. Lopez, known as Jay, and their sister Mercedes Lopez-Vargas, known as Cedie, fill out three seats held by Croslo Holdings Corporation, the branch descended from Oscar Lopez Jr. 

Miguel Ernesto L. Lopez holds the board’s single seat tied to Mantes Corporation, the branch descended from Manuel “Manolo” Lopez. Presta Holdings Company, the branch descended from Presentacion Lopez-Psinakis, holds no seat on FPH’s board at all. 

The remaining directors, David O. Chua, Francis Giles B. Puno, Diana V. Pardo-Aguilar, Richard B. Tantoco, and Emmanuel Antonio P. Singson, along with independent directors Stephen T. CuUnjieng, Jaime I. Ayala, Cielito F. Habito, and Cirilo P. Noel, are not Lopez family members and do not represent any of the four family holding companies.

A board that hasn’t faced its own shareholders this year

Berta’s seat did not just belong to a board with an uneven family balance. It belonged to a board that has not been elected, in whole or in part, at any point in 2026.

FPH’s annual meeting was originally set for May 28, then pushed back. In early May, the company disclosed that the SEC’s Markets and Securities Regulation Department had allowed a July 27 meeting to proceed while excluding the election of directors from the agenda altogether, citing the ongoing family dispute. That meant the sitting board, Piki as chairman included, would stay in place on holdover, governing under the principle that directors continue to serve until their successors are elected, with no date set for when that election would happen.

On July 3, the SEC’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Lopez matter narrowed that guidance, clarifying that the deferral applied only to board seats covered by the Mandaluyong court’s injunction protecting Piki specifically, which opened the door to a partial election on July 27 for whichever seats fell outside that protection. That plan did not hold either. On the evening of July 17, the same committee directed FPH to reschedule the meeting entirely, to a new date within 60 days, so the company would have enough time to properly prepare for an actual election. As of this writing, FPH has not announced that new date, and the board remains on holdover.

What is already known about the ownership chain

That context changes what Berta’s resignation means. She did not step down from a board that had recently faced its shareholders and would soon face them again. She stepped down from a board that has not stood for election all year and has no confirmed date to do so, leaving her seat vacant on a board operating, for the moment, without a fresh mandate from anyone.

Lopez Inc. owns 54.74% of Lopez Holdings Corporation. Lopez Holdings owns 60.67% of FPH. FPH owns 67.84% of First Gen Corporation’s common shares. FPH itself has 424,500,608 shares outstanding, as of July 22, 2026.

Separately, First Gen’s own disclosure on its financing for the 2026 hydropower acquisition with Prime Infrastructure Capital named a specific ownership threshold: the loan agreement’s change-of-management provisions are triggered if Federico “Piki” Lopez and his family cease to own, directly or indirectly, at least 29.17% of Lopez Inc. That figure is a useful anchor for readers trying to understand how a Lopez Inc. sale by other branches could leave Piki’s own family stake untouched in percentage terms while still changing who controls the company around him. – Rappler.com

Lala Rimando wrote about Philippine business, and managed newsrooms, including Newsbreak, ABS-CBN, Rappler, and Forbes, for over 25 years. She’s now based in La Union, taking care of her mom with dementia, and working on the multimedia biography of the late John Gokongwei.