Biz Buzz: Labor appeal
Former Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) capital market development head Leonardo Quinitio isn’t throwing in the towel yet on his legal battle against the PSE. Quinitio, who has sued the PSE and its top officials for illegal dismissal and payment of back wages, has filed an appeal memorandum dated Aug. 25, 2016 with the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), assailing the unfavorable decision earlier handed out by the labor arbiter.
A 23-page decision penned by NRLC arbiter Elias Salinas said Quinitio—who was dismissed for alleged falsification of records, misappropriation of company funds and entering into unauthorized deals—had been given “reasonable opportunity to be heard and to explain his side.” The labor arbiter had dismissed his complaint for illegal dismissal with monetary claims.
The PSE said it had received a copy of the appeal and would file its reply accordingly.
We heard that several fellow ex-PSE employees had voluntarily submitted new affidavits supporting Quinitio, emboldening the latter to pursue his cause. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla
Instant diversification
THE TY family’s GT Capital Holdings Inc. is still on the prowl for infrastructure investments and, apparently, it doesn’t have to look far.
The company recently exited its direct participation in the power generation business via the sale of Global Business Power Corp. to an affiliate of Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
That deal also gave GT Capital a 15.55 percent stake in Metro Pacific, which owns quite a portfolio of blue chip assets: Manila Electric Co., Maynilad Water Services Inc., tollroads like the North Luzon Expressway and Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway and, of course, the country’s biggest chain of private hospitals.
In other words—as far as GT Capital is concerned—instant diversification.
So keen is the company on this portfolio that GT Capital chief financial officer Franciso Suarez Jr. said the group would be glad to invest more in Metro Pacific.
“Definitely we are interested if there is that opportunity,” Suarez told Biz Buzz. Deep pockets always come in handy, especially with Metro Pacific’s massive expansion plans.
We expect both groups to collaborate closer in the future. Who knows, since they are now partners, even cooperation for future public private partnership deals may not be so far-fetched. Miguel R. Camus
The end of credit card fraud?
THERE have been requests to extend the Jan. 1, 2017 deadline for banks to migrate to EMV (Europay Mastercard Visa)-enabled ATM cards, point-of-sale terminals and ATM machines to improve payment card security and eliminate fraud via skimming.
However, we heard that banking regulators are lukewarm to such appeals to lengthen the compliance period.
To date, at least seven banks have already migrated from the traditional magnetic stripe to the more secure EMV chips: Chinatrust, UCPB Savings Bank, Security Bank, China Bank, China Bank Savings, Philippine Bank of Communication and UCPB. The seventh bank, UCPB, completed its migration to EMV over the weekend.
As earlier cited in this space, skimmers have also become bolder and more creative in stealing money using ATM fraud with the upcoming deadline to shift to EMV, the global standard in payment card security. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla
Steel firm vs. insurers
STEEL Corporation of the Philippines—owned by businessman Abeto Uy—is seeking the help of the Court of Appeals to collect more than P1 billion in insurance claims from nine insurance firms for two fires that damaged its plant eight years ago.
Here are the facts, and we’ll let you be the judge.
In July 25, 2007, Steel Corp. insured its assets including plants, buildings and equipment for material damage and business interruption losses from the following insurance companies: UCPB General Insurance Corp. (40 percent); Oriental Assurance Corp. (40 percent); PNB General Insurers Co. Inc. (15 percent), and Equitable Insurers Co. Inc. (5 percent).
On June 8, 2008—less than a year lat er—fire broke out at the Steel Corp. plant and destroyed most of the equipment and other assets of the company. When SCP claimed the insurance proceeds from the four insurance companies, they refused to pay the claim, prompting the steel firm to file a complaint with the Insurance Commission (which has yet to rule on the case).
Soon after the fire, Steel Corp. insured its assets with another consortium of insurers, namely: Philippine Charter Insurance Corp. (29.5 percent); Mapfre Insular Insurance Corp. (26 percent); Standard Insurance Co. Inc. (12 percent); Asia Insurance Phils. Corp. (8.50 percent), and New India Assurance Co. Ltd. (14 percent).
This is where it gets interesting. On Dec. 7, 2009—a little over a year after the first fire damaged its plant—another fire hit Steel Corp.’s facilities, prompting the firm to file another set of claims with the second set of insurers.
The company said it had met all the requirements of the insurers, but they refused to pay its claims, nonetheless.
Thus, another case was filed with the Insurance Commission.
Note, of course, that a 2011 letter from the insurers—as cited in a Supreme Court decision—explains why they declined to pay Steel Corp.’s claims, including “prima facie proof of arson,” but the company points to the result of an independent investigation that found no signs of foul play at the fire scene.
In any case, Steel Corp. now wants to Court of Appeals to compel the Insurance Commission to act on the company’s pending petitions.
“(Steel Corp.) does not seek by this petition the exercise by the (Insurance Commission) of its discretionary powers of adjudication. It only seeks to compel the public respondent to consider and act on the matter submitted to it for decision,” the company said in its petition with the CA.
The steel firm says that, unless the court acts on its petition, it is in danger of going out of business.
How will this be resolved? Watch this space, folks. Daxim L. Lucas
Worried wealthy residents
RESIDENTS of Metro Manila’s upscale residential villages where most of the country’s most powerful families reside are worried because of the traffic situation.
No, they are not worried about getting stuck in traffic, per se. But they are very worried by the implications of the hellish traffic situation in the metropolis on the peace and quiet of their gated communities. That, combined with the emergency powers that Congress looks set to grant the Duterte administration to solve the traffic crisis, that is.
Biz Buzz learned that influential members of the homeowners associations of rich subdivisions like Forbes Park and Dasmariñas Village in Makati City had been having regular meetings to plan a unified response to the growing clamor to open private village streets to non-residents vehicular traffic.
Forbes and “Dasma” are particularly vulnerable to such move to open up village streets because both exclusive enclaves are situated between the booming cities of Makati and Taguig which, at present, are connected by heavily congested roads like McKinley, Kalayaan or Chino Roces Ave.
Biz Buzz learned that the de buena familia residents were horrified by the prospect of having private (and perhaps even public) vehicles clog their village roads, damaging their well manicured sidewalks and polluting their pristine village air.
Their main defense to fend off this idea of opening up their roads is that doing so will offer little relief to outside motorists since it will only result in cars getting to the traffic bottlenecks in Taguig and Makati faster. Any time savings will be marginal.
But if that doesn’t work, these wealthy homeowners have another ace up their sleeve. If push comes to shove, they believe they stand on firm legal footing to reject any government push to open up their village roads. That’s because, in the case of Forbes and Dasma, the roads are not public roads but are private property whose titles are owned by Ayala Land. Smart. Daxim L. Lucas
Young turks
A FRESH crop of young entrepreneurs behind promising micro, small and medium enterprises were named last Friday.
PLDT SME Nation’s #BeTheBoss Awards, now on its second year, honored those showing “excellence in tech innovation and digital integration for global competitiveness.”
Out of 600 nominees, four winners were selected across four categories: Boss for E-commerce, Boss for Social Media, Boss for Social Responsibility and Boss for Innovative Solutions.
The winners were Nadine Fanlo, Jaime Fanlo and Jill Borja of Pedro Brewcrafters (social media), Rachel Alejandro and Barni Rennebeck of The Sexy Chef (e-commerce), Matthew Cua of SkyEye UAV services (innovative solutions) and Hindy Weber and Melanie Go of Holy Carabao holistic farms (social responsibility).
While recognition is one thing, the winners will get an added bonus. They will be flown by PLDT to Silicon Valley in California on an “immersion trip” involving visits to some of the world’s biggest tech companies—a fitting reward that we hope will inspire more Filipinos to make their mark in this sector. Miguel R. Camus
E-mail us at [email protected]. Get business alerts and a preview of Biz Buzz the evening before it comes out. Text ON INQ BUSINESS to 4467 (P2.50/alert).
