ERNST & YOUNG has stamped down a partners? revolt within SGV, with David Balangue finally accepting the honorary position of chairman of the country?s largest audit firm and relinquishing the managing partner?s position to his erstwhile number two, Cirilo Noel.

According to the grapevine, the capitulation was agreed upon during another emotion-laden meeting the other night among the senior SGV partners, given the specific directive from the Hong Kong office of Ernst & Young?headed by Jim Hassett as the co-managing partner in charge of the quaintly-named ?Far East? section?to resolve the boardroom uprising soonest.

Yesterday, SGV finally confirmed the Balangue ouster, but chose to paper over the boardroom firing?the second in SGV history, after Gloria Tan Climaco?s unceremonious replacement by Carlos Alindada in 1996?by entitling its news release, ?SGV affirms leadership structure.?

?At a special meeting on Feb. 3, 2009, SGV partners affirmed its leadership structure with David L. Balangue as Chairman and Cirilo P. Noel as Acting Managing Partner of SGV & Co.,? said the announcement, without elaboration.

The two remaining paragraphs of the announcement gave a paragraph each to Balangue and Noel, who heads the taxes and tariff committee of the American Chamber of Commerce, to describe their professional achievements.

The top-level switch was apparently just a portent of the looming partnership changes within SGV.

According to an unconfirmed insider?s account, a total of 15 partners, led by Roman Felipe Reyes, the vice chairman for client service and accounts, who had refused to sign the ?Internal Agreement? that Ernst & Young has asked SGV as a precondition for the continuance of their partnership, no longer have a choice but to leave the firm.

More than the rumored forthcoming resignations, what should worry Ernst & Young now is the move by certain quarters to bring the boardroom row into the political arena through a congressional investigation.

Money-go-round

? The Dealco Farms, whose abattoir had been raided and ordered padlocked by Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, has suffered another setback after the Supreme Court last week rapped by meat supplier for unfair labor practice.

? The society matrons of the Friends for Cultural Concerns of the Philippines who are running after telecom heiress Imelda Cojuangco apparently have the backing of Mrs. Imelda Marcos. The former First Lady showed up in an FCCP merienda-dance function yesterday in North Forbes to welcome new honorary member, Madame Oya Basaga, wife of the Turkish ambassador to the Philippines.

Heard through the grapevine

The funding-strapped condominium project of the Concepcions opposite Rockwell, The Metropolitan, is considering turning the 47-story project into a BYO (build-your-own), with buyers now assuming the development costs, and Philtown now being reduced to project manager, instead of being the developer.

(Web site: www.cocktales.ph; e-mail: cocktales_mst@pldtdsl.net)