Biz Buzz: Christmas vacation

As predicted, the former partners of CVC Law have been making this December anything but the season of joy between them.

The group of 15 former CVC Law partners who make up the Cruz Marcelo and Tenefrancia (CMT) law office earlier announced their plan to expand their offices at the present CVC Law Center to include extension offices at nearby buildings in The Fort.

The eight former CVCLaw partners allied with F. Arthur “Pancho” Villaraza—known still as ‘The Firm’—have, however, insisted that the CMT group is moving out of the building.

The insistence of Villaraza’s group (now officially called the Villaraza and Angangco law office) comes even after a Dec. 2, 2014, letter addressed to CMT, where the VA group surrendered four floors of the CVC Law Center to the CMT group (out of the eight floors previously owned by CVC Law) conceding that “all VA partners and non-legal personnel will vacate the 6th, 7th, 8th and 10th floors of the CVC Law Center not later than 31 December 2014.”

Reports are that the VA group will relocate to two other floors in the same building and have spent a princely sum trying to replicate the floors that they will vacate.

Insiders say that VA’s moving out of these floors is the final act in a saga that lasted two years. Due to what one side insists are issues with his management style, Villaraza was initially opposed by 16 partners of the original CVCLaw firm. According to the CMT grapevine, Villaraza’s co-name partner at VA, Raoul Angangco, was one of those who voted against him, but the two have since mended fences.

The CMT group, in the meantime, could not have gained the complete use of their floors in a more timely fashion. With their expanding practice, they appear to need all the space they can get. In fact, the CMT side says it is ready to buy VA out of their four floors in the building.

As to the report that the CMT group is bent on suing the VA group, the lawyers of the former say they don’t spend too much time worrying about their former partners. Instead, they are more concerned with expanding their practice and training their lawyers (of course, that can change very rapidly).

So for the meantime … peace? Daxim L. Lucas

PLDT campus ‘under review’

Construction of Apple Inc.’s flying saucer-shaped headquarters in Cupertino, California, is humming along, but the same can’t be said for the planned campus-style headquarters of our own tech giant, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.

The plan—which has evolved from buying an entire office building in Makati City from Alphaland Corp. to building a sprawling compound somewhere in southern Metro Manila—is apparently “under review,” according to PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno.

The PLDT group’s main offices are in Makati City.

The reason was mainly employee convenience, he said, with more than half of the affected staffers living in the north, mostly in Quezon City, which is on the opposite end of the capital district.

With Metro Manila’s worsening traffic woes, even a technology giant like PLDT could be crippled if most of its workforce are constantly late for the workday.

So, to landlords out there with huge tracts of property located a little bit closer to the metropolis, you might just have a ready client waiting. Miguel R. Camus

Bankers doing good

It’s the season of Christmas parties, and for many companies and organizations the holidays is a good reason to hang loose and party.

But some organizations do make it a point to party while doing good and giving back to society at the same time.

One such group is ACI Philippines, an association of financial market professionals, mainly bankers involved in the foreign exchange, fixed income and derivatives markets.

During its recent Christmas party, ACI Philippines (ACI stands for “Association Cambiste Internationale”—a Paris-based network of 15,000 bankers) introduced its academic scholars to its members.

For those who don’t know, ACI has been paying for the matriculation of several deserving students for some years now at the University of the Philippines.

In fact, the program is set to mark a milestone in 2015 when its first scholar, Ryan Galang, will graduate from UP with a business administration degree.

Other ACI scholars presented to the group were business administration junior Inah Saluta; economics sophomores Leo Rivera and Ram Bonsol; economics freshman Patricia Ybañez and business administration freshman Eejay Mutuc.

During the party, ACI also updated its membership on the group’s P1.7-million donation to Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild typhoon-damaged schoolhouses in Leyte.

Finally, a new set of ACI directors were elected during the party. They were Bank of the Philippine Islands’ Dino Gasmen, China Bank’s Raffy Ramos, Land Bank of the Philippines’ Karel Halog, Metrobank’s Anton Yap, Banco de Oro’s Ernesto Borlado and Icap’s Philip Recto.

They join current ACI directors Paul Reyes of Bank of Commerce, Arlene Agustin of Maybank, Adre Ibarra of Security Bank, Anvin Antonio of RCBC and Chiguez Cayanga of Amstel.

For next year, it should be interesting to see the group top its achievements this year. Daxim L. Lucas

Poro Point privatization

Recognizing the need to strike while the iron is hot, the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) hopes to get off the ground in the privatization of the Poro Point airport in San Fernando, La Union. The feasibility study is now being finalized by the RebelGroup, the consultant of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center.

Poro Point does not have any commercial flight at present but BCDA president Arnel Casanova believed was due to the lack of promotion, which he said could be addressed if the private sector would take over airport operations. The BCDA is optimistic that Poro Point could boost connectivity to North Luzon, serving the nearby tourism hotspots in Baguio, Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan and La Union. “These are very interesting tourist areas so we believe this could be a gateway to tourism, agriculture and business in North Luzon because the next airport is so far in Laoag (Ilocos Norte),” Casanova said.

This airport is also being groomed to serve areas that are becoming new hubs for business process outsourcing (BPO) like Baguio, which has a big pool of university graduates, Casanova said.

At present, the 265-hectare Poro Point airport can accommodate A320 planes and has a lot of room for runway expansion.

Will Poro Point end up competing with Clark? Casanova said he believed there could even be synergy between the two as travelers from Davao and Cebu could save on road trips if they are going to North Luzon. Doris C. Dumlao

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