Manuel V. Pangilinan, or MVP, chairman of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., is on a mission. Slighted by an unsavory remark dished out repeatedly by San Miguel Corp. president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang, MVP is dead set to contest every major corporate move of Ang to teach his rival a lesson in humility.

The grapevine said the fight for the control of Manila Electric Co. was the latest in a string of corporate battles waged by the two giant executives. MVP has decided to join the Lopez family in fending off the attempt of Ang and San Miguel to wrest control of the power distributor.

?The Lopezes have agreed to reward Mr. Pangilinan the chairmanship of Meralco if they win against San Miguel,? a source confirmed to this writer.

MVP?s group, including Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. started accumulating Meralco shares last week. MVP?s camp bought 37 million Meralco shares for P91.50, or P3.3 billion, in a cross transaction handled by Macquarie Securities and RBS Asia at the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Prior to the block sale, MVP had quietly bid for the 27-percent stake of Government Service Insurance System in Meralco, only to lose to San Miguel in October last year.

The MVP-Ang rivalry traces its roots as early as 1998 when First Pacific tried to buy into San Miguel. The grapevine said MVP received his first rude treatment from Ang when he inquired about the possibility of First Pacific investing into the food and beverage conglomerate.

MVP felt Ang belittled him and resented the San Miguel executive?s actuations. Ang rejected MVP?s overtures and First Pacific eventually took over PLDT in 1998.

Win some, lose some

The rivalry extended to the bidding for the control of Del Monte Pacific in 2005. MVP sounded confident of bagging the stake of the Lorenzo family on the eve of the auction. To MVP?s surprise, however, the Lorenzos found a white knight in San Miguel and the Campos family. San Miguel beat the deadline with the help of state funding from the Development Bank of the Philippines.

The grapevine said MVP nursed his wounds and shifted his attention to National Transmission Corp. Metro Pacific Investments Corp., the local unit of First Pacific, could have easily won the bidding for the 25-year concession to operate the assets of TransCo in late 2006 but its partner, Terna Rette Electrica Nazionale S.p.A. of Italy, withdrew on the last minute. Terna?s withdrawal dealt a big blow to Metro Pacific because it deprived MVP?s company of a technical partner.

An investment banker said Two Rivers Pacific Holdings Corp., Metro Pacific?s corporate vehicle for the TransCo auction, and partner Terna privately agreed prior to the auction to offer $4.4 billion for the country?s transmission network. That would have easily topped the $3.95-billion bid of Monte Oro Grid Resources Corp. and partner State Grid Corp. of China.

The grapevine said MVP blamed Ang for Terna?s withdrawal in the last minute. A source claimed Ang ?threatened? the Italian company, which promptly pulled out.

Ang?s group, Triratna Holdings, also lost in the TransCo bidding. Triratna, which listed Ang as among its members, and partners Tenaga Nasional Berhad of Malaysia and US fund manager Newbridge Asia LLP, had authorized Ang to bid as much as $4.2 billion for TransCo.

The Uncle Scrooge in Ang, however, prevailed. He offered $3.905 billion, narrowly losing (by $45 million) to the eventual winning bid of $3.95 billion submitted by Monte Oro.

Victorious in Maynilad

MVP, meanwhile, piqued Ang when Metro Pacific successfully gained control of Maynilad Water Services Inc., which operates the western zone of Metro Manila. The grapevine said San Miguel and Ang had salivated at the thought of bagging a major utility company like Maynilad.

Metro Pacific teamed up with the Consunji group and obtained a controlling interest in the water company, now called DMCI-MPIC Water Co. Inc.

Two other latest acquisitions of the First Pacific group are Philex Mining Corp. and First Philippine Infrastructure Inc., the company that owns the concession to operate the North Luzon Expressway.

E-mail: rayenano@yahoo.com or business@manilastandardtoday.com