PSE Circular for Brokers No. 2251-99

September 9, 1999 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 2251-99 PLDT NEWS PLDT Prepares for Y2K Event PLDT Announces Plans for the First Year 2000 Event on September 9, 1999 PLDT announced today its plans for dealing with the first of the Year 2000 or Y2K Millennium. Bug dates. The first of the critical Y2K dates occurs at midnight on Wednesday, when clocks and computer "calendars" throughout the country click over and the date becomes 9/9/99. PLDT has established a special center to monitor potential problems around the world and activate contingency plans if this becomes necessary. "PLDT has been preparing for this event for several years now. Since 1996. we have been steadily working towards making all our critical systems Y2K Ready ," PLDT Executive Vice President Antonio R. Samson said. "This will be the first real test of our preparedness and the effectiveness of our contingency plans. We are very confident that our repair and testing so far will enable us to come through this date transition without incident," he said. The Y2K problem is actually a series of critical dates that occur in computer systems from now until the year 2004 and beyond. The most important of these are the 9/9/99 date, the transition from 31 December 1999 to 01 January 2000, and the next leap year date on 25 February 2000. The importance of the 9/9/99 date event is that many computer systems may have been programmed to do something unexpected on this date. Many programs were never expected to be still in use by now, and when the computer date field fills up with nines, many of them may behave in very unpredictable ways. Samson announced that as part of its preparations for this event, PLDT has established a special monitoring and control center, known as he PLDT Readiness Center . This will be manned by senior PLDT officials and Y2K specialists every time there is a Y2K date transition event. This center will monitor events around the world and in all of PLDT's installations throughout the Philippines. If a problem occurs, top technical experts will be on hand to carry out immediate restoration action. The company has also developed hundreds of specialized contingency plans covering every aspect of its operations. "Should something unexpected develop during this time, our contingency plans will be activated by the Readiness Center," Samson said. "We will be monitoring all communications activities throughout the night and the next morning to make sure this Y2K event is handled swiftly and effectively Last July, PLDT President Manuel V. Pangilinan assured the public during a PLDT-Telecommunications Users Group of the Philippines (TUGP) Y2K presentation that PLDT is deeply aware of its responsibilities as the country's leading telecom carrier to overcome the threat of the millennium bug as its Y2K compliance program is on-track and on schedule. PLDT has recently announced several successful Y2K tests with other carriers to make sure communications will as far as possible be unaffected. Samson said further Y2K announcements may be expected later on the 9th of September.