Atty. Jocelyn C. Villar-Altamira
Vice-Chairperson, Good Governance Advocates and Practitioners of the Philippines (GGAPP); Head of Corporate Governance and Compliance, Manila Electric Company
Atty. Jocelyn Villar-Altamira heads the Corporate Governance and Compliance Office (CGCO) of Manila Electric Company (MERALCO), a 117 year old listed company and the largest electric distribution utility in the Philippines with around 7 million customers and market capitalization of around Php 357.3 Billion. The CGCO administers the implementation of the Company’s CG policies, goals and initiatives as mandated by the Company’s Board of Directors. It is tasked with developing compliance monitoring and employee training programs, cascading of the CG Manual and Code of Ethics, coordinating whistleblowing investigations of CG violations and submission of CG reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange (SEC and PSE). It provides board secretarial support to the Company’s subsidiaries, and administers disclosures required to be reported to the SEC and the PSE. It also provides support to the Company’s more than 45,000 common stockholders in relation to the facilitation and delivery of dividends and the issuance and transfer of stock certificates
Under her leadership, Meralco was awarded in 2015 as one of the top scoring 50 Publicly Listed Companies (PLC’s) in the Association of South East Asian Nations or ASEAN based on the Corporate Governance Scorecard. In 2017, it was recognized as among the top 20 PLCs in the field of Corporate Governance in the Philippines. In 2019, Meralco was among the top 6 PLCs awarded a four-arrow recognition for its high level of corporate governance performance.
From 2016-2017, Atty. Altamira served as President of the Good Governance Advocates of the Philippines or GGAPP, an association of ethics, governance and compliance officers mostly from listed public companies, as well as privately held firms, non-profit organizations, faith-based groups and educational institutions. Its principal aim is to empower and enhance the capacity of ethics, compliance and governance officers through consensus building, research and by engaging regulators and non-government actors in the field of business ethics and corporate governance particularly in policy reform and capability building. At present, she currently serves as GGAPP’s Vice Chairperson.
Before joining Meralco, Atty. Altamira was an Assistant Director who headed various offices under the Enforcement, Corporation Finance and Market Regulation departments of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
She obtained both her Juris Doctor with Second Honors and Bachelor of Science major in Legal Management degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University.
She is the daughter of the former Commission on Audit Chairman, Provincial Board Member and 1971 Constitutional Convention Delegate Atty. Reynaldo Villar of Sto. Tomas Pangasinan and the former Lilli Concepcion of Dagupan City. She is married to Atty. Ernesto A. Altamira III of Quezon Province and is the proud mother of Juan Antonio.
