Armed with proceeds from the sale of some of his company's choice assets such as Dutch car and appliance trader Hagemeyer and Hong Kong's Pacific Link mobile-phone company, Mr Pangilinan was tasked with turning around his firm's fortunes and, to a large extent, buttressing his employer's shaky empire, the Salim Group of Indonesia.

The group was tottering under US$10 billion in debt and cast adrift with the fall of its political patron, former Indonesian president Suharto.

To Mr Pangilinan, who was segueing from the post of managing director to president of First Pacific at the time, his Manila sojourn was about buying opportunities - not a strategic retreat from Hong Kong.

'Which incumbent telco in Asia could be bought? We looked at Thailand, Telkom Malaysia and Indonesia - all the incumbents were owned by the government. Would they have sold to us? I don't think so. PLDT was one of the few rare companies that was in private hands.'

After a buying binge that practically transformed First Pacific into a pure Philippine play - with interests in telecoms through PLDT's fixed-line and Smart's mobile-phone networks and in property development through Metro Pacific Corp (MPC) - Mr Pangilinan lost his footing in the country's troubled economic waters.

With a staggering load of debt threatening to sink the MPC ship and First Pacific along with it, Mr Pangilinan had no choice but to bail out, casting off the jewel in his company's property crown - the 214-hectare Fort Bonifacio Global City, a business centre in the heart of Manila which the company acquired, some say exorbitantly, in 1995.

'My views about this are rather mixed,' Mr Pangilinan says about the decision to cede control over Fort Bonifacio to rival Ayala Land. 'As a strategic long-term matter, the basic issue must be, should the group be in property as a long-term business, particularly in the Philippines?

'I think Fort Bonifacio is such a jewel of a property. On the one hand, it's such a unique piece of real estate in the Philippines, especially Metro Manila. I think in the long term, we'll regret having given it up. On the other hand, property - say in relation to telco, or say in relation to food - is it as exciting? Probably not.

'Given the need of First Pacific at that time to generate cash of US$90 million to reduce loans at head office, it was a decision that could be defended as being reasonable and appropriate at the time.'

But how did he feel about losing the country's biggest property development project at the time? 'Well, largely you have to be dispassionate about these things and not be emotional, because otherwise you go crazy.'

Just as Mr Pangilinan's executive team was coming to terms with the loss of Fort Bonifacio, internal strife erupted within First Pacific, casting him against some board members and even creating some friction with the Salims.

The boardroom war was triggered by an offer from the Philippines' Gokongwei family - owners of Cebu Pacific Airlines and one of the country's biggest conglomerates with interests in food, retailing, telecommunications and property development - to acquire the Salims' stake in PLDT.

Strapped for cash, the Salim Group, headed by Anthony Salim - the son of founder and Chinese-Indonesian tycoon Liem Sioe Liong - found the offer irresistible. Several members of the First Pacific board also backed the deal, except for one crucial dissension - that of Mr Pangilinan.

Just before First Pacific's annual general meeting in May last year, Mr Pangilinan offered to resign.

'I told Anthony when he asked for my support with respect to the sale of PLDT: 'No, I cannot give that to you. Because in my heart of hearts, in my brain of brains, I don't think we should sell, at least not now. If you say otherwise, you're the boss. You're the major shareholder. Have it your way. I'm not going to stand in your way. But I have to resign because I don't agree'. I wasn't resisting to the point where I was going to defy him. It was very clear.'

The Philippine media had a field day, portraying the episode as a boardroom rebellion. And it did claim casualties.

Mr Pangilinan named the board members who opposed him at the time and who he believes leaked news of the internal strife to Manila's media.

(A few days after this interview with the South China Morning Post, Mr Pangilinan's executive staff rectified this apparent indiscretion by requesting that no names relating to the PLDT boardroom war be mentioned.)

'It was not really Anthony [who leaked the story], because he's a very private person,' Mr Pangilinan says.

And what happened to the board members who were backing the disposal of First Pacific's PLDT stake? 'Oh, they're gone,' he says.

Although he emerged victorious from that boardroom insurrection, did he lose something from the fight? 'Whenever you have a fight, you lose a part of yourself,' he says.

Mr Pangilinan has known the Salims since 1978. He started working for Anthony Salim in 1981 as managing director of First Pacific. He says he has had disagreements with Anthony in the past, long before last year's PLDT tussle, but most of these were 'sorted out behind the curtain'.

'I've always been an independent manager of the business - First Pacific or whatever. Maybe I'm just naturally independent, and I'd like to think it is a strength because you do want to have very independent CEOs, even within First Pacific. You want them to run their businesses.'

Given their long history, he describes the tussle with the Salims as the darkest moment in his professional career in recent years.

And how is his current relationship with them? 'I think it's okay. I've always held him [Anthony] in high regard. That's all I'm saying.'

For Mr Pangilinan, PLDT's resurgence in terms of profitability and debt management in the past year - which he expects to be sustainable well into the medium-term - is vindication enough.

'PLDT is doing very well. The case for retaining [the PLDT] investment is there. And I think everybody has been persuaded that we really should have kept it. Now, if its performance turns sour, that would be a different story.'

With First Pacific's Philippine house apparently in order, Mr Pangilinan is now on the expansionist trail once again, largely in the telecoms and food-related sectors.

'There are some companies we're looking at [in Asia]. They're all at the very exploratory stage. I think that after the so-called dark days, at least we have the chance to say that we're expanding in a more focused and deliberate way.'

And what lessons were learned in the Philippines? 'I think if you could work in the Philippines, you could work anywhere else in the world. We are unique.'

Mr Pangilinan says that although some may think that doing business in the Philippines is like being in purgatory, he believes the best defence against the country's unpredictability is to keep your eye on the ball.

'It's very difficult to disentangle politics from business in the Philippines, as in most countries here in Asia. The best protection for your business is for you to do very well. Because if you show that you can manage it successfully, the threat or the pressure on the business recedes,' he says.

'In the case of PLDT, it is iconic in the Philippine market. We're the largest issuer of debt paper abroad, we're listed on the stock exchange in New York, we have the biggest market capitalisation in the Philippines. It would give pause to people if somebody starts messing around with this company.'

Biography

Manuel Pangilinan was born in Manila in July 1946. He graduated from the prestigious Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University.

Mr Pangilinan took up positions with the Phinma Group, Bancom International and American Express Bank in Manila. After serving as managing director at First Pacific, he was appointed company president in 1998. The following year he was promoted to chairman. Last year he was named chief executive of First Pacific. He was appointed chairman of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co this year. Mr Pangilinan also is president commissioner of Indofood Sukses Makmur.