Biz Buzz: First SEC ‘satellite’

Good news for those in need to do business with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) but find it difficult to transact at its current head office in Ortigas (where locating parking space is a big challenge). The SEC is set to launch at Ali Mall Cubao’s government center Tuesday the first of a chain of satellite offices. This is in line with efforts to boost efforts to ease doing business in the country. The launch is also in time for the SEC’s 78th anniversary celebration.

The SEC satellite office, which will open on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., will provide the following services: name verification, pre-processing of registration applications; pre-processing of applications for amendments of articles of incorporation, bylaws and articles of partnership; monitoring and receiving of reportorial requirements.

SEC Secretary Gerard Lukban said the agency was now in talks with mall operators to set up other satellite offices around Metro Manila, including in the southern part of the metropolis.–Doris C. Dumlao

Art collectors’ book

Finale Art File launched last weekend a book on Southeast Asian art collectors, entitled “30 Art Friends 2”, in cooperation with Christie’s Hong Kong.

Published by Singaporean architect TK Quek, the book compiles short essays and folios from 30 selected art collectors throughout Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, focusing on select artworks in their possession and the stories behind these objects. Evita Sarenas and Sylvia Gascon of Finale Art File are coordinators for the Philippines.

Featured collectors from the Philippines are Carlos Cojuangco, Hans Sy, Joanne Que Young, Julius Babao, Kevin and Rose Anne Belmonte, Louie and Liza Bate, Michelangelo and Lourdes Samson, Olivia Yao, Paulino Que and Rina Ortiz.

Proceeds from book sales will be donated to several beneficiaries across the region.

In the Philippines, these will be used to benefit the Department of Studio Arts Scholarship Program of the College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines, and the Museum Education Program of the Vargas Museum.

The book is the second of its kind. The first of the series featured 30 collectors from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and was published by Quek in 2010. Inquiries or orders may be made at Finale Art File at Warehouse 17, La Fuerza, 2241 Chino Roces Ave., Makati City, or via e-mail at [email protected]. The gallery website is www.finaleartfile.com.

At only P3,500 apiece, it’s a small price to pay for such a worthy cause. —Daxim L. Lucas

PPP Law needed

If anything should be learned from the stalled Cavite-Laguna Expressway public private partnership deal, it’s how much the current build-operate-transfer (BOT) law needs to be revised.

After all, the delays we are seeing today—four months and counting in the case of Calax—are permitted under the BOT law. Revisions are already underway, including a measure to discourage bidders, unless they have a very strong case, from filing appeals without putting up some money first.

That fee, a percentage of the project cost, is clearly outlined for appeals during the pre-qualification process. But the BOT Law is vague on what happens after that such as in the case of Calax, when the appeal came after the bids were opened.

For example, a fee equivalent to half a percent of a $1-billion project, which is the range anyway for some of the newer PPPs, is about P2.2 billion. Right now, we hear it costs less than P2,000 to make a similar appeal to President Aquino.

“It’s part of the process and one of the weaknesses of the BOT Law now. How to deal with appeals post-bid submission, in the context of delays,” PPP Center executive director Cosette Canilao told Biz Buzz. “That one we are trying to strengthen and solve.”

That is still not enough to solve delays if and when an appeal is actually made in future projects. Sources say those behind the BOT Law amendments are unlikely to include any provision to give Malacañang a deadline.

After all, nobody wants to tell the boss to hurry up, especially if that boss is the President of a country. Our sources say such a deadline can be included, if the private sector will lobby for it.

Does anyone want to step up to the plate, then?–Miguel R. Camus

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