Ex-chief justice ready for next journey after SEC caps independent directors’ term

MANILA, Philippines — Retired chief justice Artemio Panganiban is ready to move on to his next journey after his stint in the board of most publicly listed companies was affected by the term limit imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on independent directors.

Panganiban has served as a long-time independent director in several listed companies including GMA Network Inc., PLDT Inc., Petron Corp. and Manila Electric Co.

He said that among the several listed companies which tapped him as independent director, almost all – except for JG Summit Holdings Inc., RL Commercial REIT Inc. and Jollibee Foods Corp. – were affected by the SEC’s memorandum circular that imposes a strict term limit on independent directors of publicly listed companies.

“The SEC circular is addressed not to me, not to any independent director. It’s addressed to the corporations. So how can we comment, we’re not involved directly,” Panganiban, who served as Supreme Court chief justice from Dec. 21, 2005 to Dec. 6, 2006, said.

“I never sought any directorship, any position, not even in the Supreme Court. I did not apply for any, even to become a justice of the Supreme Court,” he said.

SEC Memorandum Circular (MC) 7, Series of 2026, which took effect on Feb. 1, 2026, mandates that an independent director may serve a maximum cumulative term of nine years in the same company, reckoned from 2012.

After serving the maximum cumulative term limit, independent directors are now barred from being an independent director of the same company. They can, however, be elected as a regular director.

“When I retired from the Supreme Court as chief justice, I thought I would just go like any other. A quiet life. I prepared to go Tagaytay, small farm. Dedicate myself there. But people, businessmen, started coming to me, inviting me to join their companies, one after the other so I found myself not retired. I merely changed tires for a new journey,” Panganiban said.

“Perhaps now, the Lord is telling me, maybe you should have another journey. So I don’t feel sad. I don’t feel anything. Maybe that’s the way the journey goes,” he said.

The Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 138 has denied the prayer for a writ of preliminary injunction which sought to stop the implementation of the SEC circular.

In an order dated May 11, RTC Branch 138 denied the plea for a writ of preliminary injunction filed by GMA Network over the commission’s implementation of the memorandum circular.

The prayer for a writ of preliminary injunction was incorporated into the petition for certiorari filed by GMA on March 26, which sought to nullify and set aside MC 7.

The media giant has questioned “the hastiness and unreasonableness of implementing the term limits of the independent directors” and argued that it will be deprived of its two independent directors in the persons of Panganiban and Jaime Laya who have been serving as independent directors of the company from May 18, 2007 and July 26, 2007, respectively.

In denying the prayer for injunction, the RTC ruled that GMA failed to establish that it will suffer grave and irreparable injury should MC 7 be implemented.