Biz Buzz: Ayala Alabang breakthrough

The climate is turning more benign in upscale Ayala Alabang and it has nothing to do with Pagasa’s announcement that the uber-sizzling summer is about to end.

What would have been an ugly legal battle over a P49-million barangay community center planned inside the exclusive village has been averted with a peace pact now shaping up among the Homeowners Opposing Barangay Structure (HOBS), the barangay leadership headed by chair Alfred Xerez-Burgos and the Ayala Alabang Village Association (AAVA).

Homeowners under the banner of HOBS had rallied against the project, saying they were not just worried about the parks, bird sanctuary and loss of privacy if a barangay hall (Barangay Ayala Alabang includes other areas outside the gated village) were to rise on what was intended to be an open space, but also the alleged lack of transparency and railroading of the project by the barangay and AAVA.

We heard that Muntinlupa Mayor Aldrin San Pedro had to step into the fray and broker an amicable settlement among warring homeowners and barangay leaders with a great deal of success.

“The suggested compromise is to no longer touch the park, take a look at the footprint where the existing AAVA offices are, and consider renovating or extending a little bit, but just within that area so it will be better,” said a source affiliated with HOBS.

AAVA—earlier criticized by HOBS for “not representing the interest of the village”—is also seen to have become more considerate of the complainants, who earlier prepared tons of documentary evidence that the original project did not meet the requirements of the property developer Ayala Land Inc., the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board and even the Commission on Audit.—Doris C. Dumlao

Win-win?

Speaking of breakthroughs, the problem besetting the fledgling local gaming industry may soon go away. The licensees of the state-owned Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) have met a few times—last two Fridays—to discuss the tax regime uncertainty hounding the industry. To recall, this was related to Pagcor’s loss of tax-exempt status that, in turn, was seen to trigger a shift in the industry’s tax regime from a 5-percent franchise tax on gross gaming revenues to a 30-percent tax on net income.

People familiar with the talks said the industry was seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, albeit unwilling to discuss this in detail so as not to telegraph their strategy. Last Friday’s rebound in gaming stocks, for instance, was fueled by rumors of the industry having an audience with the Bureau of Internal Revenue that day, but our sources clarified that it was just the licensees that had met that day.

Nevertheless, the mood among the gaming licensees seemed to have improved. “The positive resolution to this issue is within sight. We are quite confident on a win-win outcome,” one gaming industry source said.

“We all agreed that government will do the right thing,” another source said.

At stake is the bankability of the local gaming industry, which was earlier thought of as having a competitive cost structure versus regional gaming hubs like Singapore and Malaysia.—Doris C. Dumlao

Committed Chinoys

Businessman Francis Chua wants to assure the President that the Chinoy businessmen are not about to abandon their 53-year-old barrio school program.

“It’s a flagship program, the Filipino-Chinese Community will sustain it as part of the legacy,” said Chua.

Chua made the clarification amid fears that the federation’s move to prioritize the payment of taxes by its members would affect its highly efficient barrio school program— P400,000 per two-classroom building versus the government’s budget of P1.4 million for the same structure.

Chua said that Chinoy businessmen have made the payment of correct taxes their priority in line with the President’s mandate and that this would have no effect on their socio-civic projects. The group plans to build between 100 and 200 school buildings this year.—Gil Cabacungan

The taxwoman cometh

The deadline for the payment of income taxes for 2012 may have long passed, but that does not mean that the Bureau of Internal Revenue is about to relax its campaign to go after tax evaders.

That is why those afraid of being assessed by the BIR are shying away from being photographed or featured in glossies, saying that they feared Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares has taken to reviewing the pages of magazines to see who may not be paying their right taxes.

The thinking is that if they are featured in these glossies catering to the alta sociedad, then they should also rank high on the list of top taxpayers. So if they are not, then they fear that the taxman—or in this case, the taxwoman—will come a-calling.—Tina Arceo-Dumlao

Not-so-Pinoy smartphones

Global tech giants Samsung and Apple may be the most recognizable names in the smartphone industry today, but local brands that sell much cheaper alternatives are also starting to make waves.

Several local smartphone brands have sprouted during the last two years and most tout themselves as sellers of “Pinoy-made” phones that can compete with much bigger rivals both on price and features. But just how local are these phones, really? Why is there a sudden influx of Pinoy-branded gadgets that, strangely, are not accompanied by an equally sudden surge in the country’s manufacturing sector?

A closer look will show anyone that these brands, apart from their marketing teams, are not very local after all. For starters, many of the phones these companies sell are merely re-rebranded generics that are built by plants in China and distributed to different countries in Southeast Asia. Take a trip to Thailand’s or Malaysia’s versions of Greenhills and one will see many of the same gadgets sold here, only bearing different names.

This practice, however, is not new. And many companies do take the effort to tell their suppliers to include features that target Filipinos—ranging from local content to Philippine flag stickers on some phones’ cases. But one “local” company takes it to another level. This local smartphone brand loves talking about how it was founded by Filipino businessmen and of how the company creates jobs for many Filipinos.

The company’s real owners, according to our sources, are a group of businessmen from Taiwan. Its local executives, they say, are just fronts.—Paolo Montecillo

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