Biz Buzz: By hook or by crook
A GAGGLE of lawyers is gaining notoriety for supposedly twisting arms in the judicial branch of government, or downright purchase of court judgments to suit the needs of its clients, several of whom have run-ins with the law.
One of its clients, embroiled in a raging corporate battle, apparently wants to win at all costs. As such, these lawyers supposedly coached this particular client to engage in forgery—from signatures to bogus documents—to stake a claim on a highly profitable company, including the company’s facilities and equipment.
It was a costly bait (an eight-digit figure, we hear) for three magistrates to overturn a previous ruling that sided with the company’s rightful owners. So the eight-figure offer was dangled before the magistrates… but they didn’t bite, according to our source.
Furious that the multimillion-peso offer was turned down, the lawyers resorted to another tack to get back at the intransigent magistrates—character assassination.
A public relations firm was even tapped to do the demolition work on the magistrates, we were told.
But the magistrates stood pat on their decision, held their ground, toughing it out through a barrage of mudslinging, name-smearing, and the lies that were hurled at them.
By the way, another female magistrate who used to handle the case washed her hands off the issue even if one of the defendants is a maternal relative, simply because the case has no legal leg to stand on, we hear.
The public will surely hear more about this dispute in the coming weeks, given the relatively high profile names involved. What case are we talking about? Clue: It’s a family brawl being fought near the water. Daxim L. Lucas
Good old reliable
SOME websites like to rate our Manila airport poorly— though that’s before renovation work had started—but flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) seems to have fared much better as it made it to the list of the 22 “most reliable airlines” in the world.
That’s according to travel website Wanderbat, which compiled a list that revealed the obvious names—wealthy gulf carriers Qatar and Emirates occupy the top two spots and Singapore’s flag carrier is at No. 4—as well as unexpected ones, like Malaysia Airlines, which ranked No. 16 despite a series of misfortunes in 2014.
Before some readers weigh in to agree or disagree about PAL’s ranking, which was at no. 21 worldwide, by the way, let’s explain Wanderbat’s metrics first.
The focus was on three attributes, which are on-time performance, checked baggage cost (basically the number of bags you can check in for free) and fleet age, as newer planes tend to be cleaner and more “quiet.” That would be used to calculate a numerical “smart rating.”
PAL’s relatively low baggage check-in costs, its 53 percent “ on-time” performance and average fleet age of 4.2 years allowed it to get a smart rating of 80, Wanderbat said. That’s a notch better than No. 22 for Berlin Air and at par with Russia’s Aeroflot and China Airlines. In case of a tie, Wanderbat said the final ranking came down to on-time performance.
What we can gather from this is that Philippine carriers, too, can rank among the best in the world, even if based on a limited set of parameters. For that, we could at least give credit to PAL’s current management under tycoon Lucio Tan as well as San Miguel Corp. from its recent past, which played a big role in getting those new planes. Miguel R. Camus
Water rate woes
MANILA Water consumers should be happy because their water rate will go down after MWSS won an arbitral award against Manila Water. But should they be?
During the arbitration process, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) asked for a P7-per-cubic meter reduction while Manila Water asked for an increase.
Under the concession agreement, the tribunal can only choose which of the two protagonists is correct. It has no authority to order the two parties to look for a compromise.
It also has no authority to determine the correct rate. That is the job of MWSS. It is limited to an either-or decision, a so-called pendulum that can swing only this or that way. And it swung against the concessionaire.
When will the rate cut of at least P7-per-cubic meter take effect? More importantly, will it be P7 or less? If it is less—and this appears to be the looming possibility—what could be the reason for MWSS to allow its victory to be watered down? What will the water-consuming public do? Daxim L. Lucas
New crop of Asean entrepreneurs
A NEW industry is poised to create a breed of Asean entrepreneurs, if current trends continue. At the sidelines of the recent Philippine Investment Forum, three local tech aces—Xurpas Inc. CEO Nix Nolledo and fellow young turks Paul Rivera and Manny Ayala—talked about the potential of the rising digital economy to make money and solve problems.
On the persistent issue of getting funding for startups, Rivera (the CEO of Globe Telecom-backed startup Kalibr) said the relevant question is, “are Filipinos going to be the ones making apps for Filipinos to use?”
Are we going to be the ones to create solutions to local and regional problems through technology? he asked. “Right now we are seeing a lot of local, regional and even Japanese money coming in, but not much of Silicon Valley-based [venture capital firms]. I think it’s because our needs are different and what we can address are problems recognizable to our specific region—and because of that, we can expect capital to flow in from the very same source.”
Meanwhile, Nolledo and Ayala agree that a hypothetical $2 million in funding can do more in the Philippines versus other locations due mainly to the rate of the Filipinos’ adoption to mobile technology and our technical know-how from coding to marketing. Ultimately, the goal is to build a healthy ecosystem for tech players to compete and collaborate, with a good source of funding and a ready, tech-savvy market.
“It takes a few successful entrepreneurs to make a local tech ecosystem thrive,” said Ayala, who is the CEO of Endeavor Philippines. “We’ve seen it happen in Silicon Valley, when the mavericks behind Fairchild Semiconductor, taught and nurtured what would soon be the leaders of HP, IBM and Google. The transfer of ideas is faster these days, so our hope is for the same trend to happen in the Philippines.”
Expect big things from this sector. And expect big things from these three gentlemen. Daxim L. Lucas
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