by PLDT Media Services | Aug 05, 2008

MANILA, Philippines, 5 August 2008 –– Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company
(NYSE : TEL; PSE : PLDT) announced that at a meeting held earlier today, its Board of
Directors approved a second share buyback program of up to another 2 million shares
representing approximately 1.1% of the Company’s total outstanding common shares.
The buyback will continue until the number of shares earmarked for the program has
been fully repurchased, or until such time as the Company’s Board of Directors
determines otherwise. The Company has sufficient unrestricted retained earnings to
cover the amount for the program.

In January this year, the Board approved a share buyback program for up to 2 million
shares. To-date, a total of 1.74 million shares have been purchased into treasury at an
average price of P 2,532 per share, representing a total cash outlay of P 4.4 billion.
PLDT intends to repurchase the remaining 0.26 million shares under this program at the
appropriate time.

Similar to the first program, implementation of the second share buyback program will
be undertaken by PLDT’s Treasury Group with the plan to reacquire the shares on an
opportunistic basis, directly from the open market through the trading facilities of the
PSE and/or the NYSE.

These share buyback programs reflect PLDT’s continued commitment to capital
management as an important element in enhancing shareholder value, and reinforce
initiatives the Company has already undertaken such as the declaration of special
dividends on the basis of a “look back” approach on top of the regular dividend pay out
of 70% on common shares.

The buyback programs also manifest the Company’s confidence in the inherent value of
its shares especially when their market value falls below such level, as they do from
time to time. The program is not expected to affect any of the Company’s existing or
prospective projects or programs and dividend policy.
Requisite disclosures to the PSE, SEC and NYSE shall be filed following each repurchase
of shares.