Biz Buzz: Travel bug

It’s not easy being the de facto head of the Aquino administration’s economic team.

Your workdays are full of meetings with government and private sector officials to help ensure that the right amount of resources flows to the parts of the economy that need it the most.

And then there are the overseas trips that never seem to end.

In the case of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, we’re talking about a lot of trips. Apparently, the man at the apex of the government’s economic apparatus spends most of his days either in an airplane, in convention halls or in hotel rooms living out of a suitcase. Ok, we exaggerate, but you get the idea.

In 2014, Purisima took no less than 22 trips to foreign countries (all on official business, mind you), sometimes visiting two countries in a single outing (to save on airfare, no doubt, given the proximity of some of his overseas appointments with each other).

Last year, he visited the United States four times, Singapore four times, Japan and China twice each, and other places like the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany and even Kazakhstan, among others.

The duration of his trips varied from as short as a day to weeklong ones.

Visiting 22 foreign places in 12 months means he was away, on average, a little less than twice a month throughout 2014.

Tough work.

But wait, if foreign travel is tough, 2015 is an even tougher year for the finance chief.

So far this year, Purisima has already been on 10 overseas visits, including four trips to Hong Kong and two trips to Singapore. He has also visited the United States, Colombia and Switzerland. With 10 trips in the first four months of 2015, he now has a  higher travel frequency at almost three trips a month compared to last year’s average.

Again, all these trips were made on official business, although we’re told that Purisima’s “willingness” to travel overseas has long been something of an inside joke among authorities in Malacañang tasked with approving foreign trips of government officials. (No less than the President  noticed this early on, we’re told.)

We’re not sure how often other Cabinet members travel overseas, but we’re betting that Purisima is giving Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario some serious competition when it comes to frequency of foreign travel.

Oh, and before anyone gets any ideas that Purisima’s trips are done surreptitiously … no way. All his foreign trips are displayed for all and sundry to see on the Department of Finance’s website. He travels a lot, and he’s not hiding it. —Daxim L. Lucas

Missed connections, missed opportunities

Speaking of foreign trips, it is often a bragging right among top officials in the private sector (at least those who are not yet eligible to go on official travel using private jets) to go on trips via foreign airlines known for their efficiency and business traveler-friendly ways.

One such airline is Cathay Pacific, which is a favorite among well-heeled Filipino businessmen—especially those who don’t mind paying up to three times the airfare charged by Philippine Airlines—for business class travel to either the United States or Europe.

But such was not to be the case on Monday night. Biz Buzz heard that some high-powered businessmen, including SM Prime Holdings executive vice president Jeffrey Lim, experienced a major foul up in their travel plans, no thanks to what they described as the “inefficiency” of the Hong Kong-based carrier.

Lim, we’re told, was supposed to fly to the US last Monday on a Manila-Hong Kong-New York Cathay Pacific connecting flight for an investment conference sponsored by investment banking giant UBS.

This event is a big deal as it is the first Asean-oriented investment conference UBS is hosting for at least 34 fund managers and equity investors in the US, and SM was the only Philippine property company invited to show their wares, so to speak.

Lim was scheduled to fly to Hong Kong on the 7:10 p.m. Cathay Pacific flight but was later told by the airline’s ground crew that the service would be delayed by almost two hours. No reason for the delay was given. This meant that the SM official would miss his connecting flight to New York.

And what options did the airline give him? They told the official to take the next day’s flight, which would defeat the entire purpose of the trip since it meant he would arrive in New York after the scheduled meetings. As such, Lim decided to skip the trip entirely.

With that missed connection came another missed opportunity for millions of dollars of investments into the Philippines, no thanks to an airline that supposedly prides itself in efficiency.

Perhaps next time, the SM group should put Lim on a private jet … oh wait, his boss Tessie Sy-Coson had flight delay issues there, too.–Daxim L. Lucas

Water, water down the drain

Water regulators seem to be taking their sweet time deciding whether to allow Maynilad Water Services Inc. to catch up on inflation adjustments while the two parties wrestle with the implementation of an arbitration panel ruling.

Last week, Maynilad asked the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) to allow it to implement an inflation adjustment of 4.19 percent to cover charges it was not able to collect for the past two years. That inflation adjustment translates to an increase by an average of P1.31 per cubic meter, while other rate components, such as the basic charge, remain on “status quo.”

The MWSS directors had a board meeting on Monday, but the matter was apparently not taken up.

The application, sources said, is still with the MWSS’ Regulatory Office, and there is no word yet when it will be presented to the board.

By all accounts, Maynilad officials have their fingers crossed that the regulators will approve at least the inflation adjustment. This will defuse the impact on consumers who, otherwise, would bear the brunt of a steep increase because of the simultaneous implementation of the basic rate adjustment and inflation adjustment.

Maynilad has rejected the MWSS’ proposal to only partially implement the rate awarded to the concessionaire by an appeals panel following the arbitration proceedings with the International Chamber of Commerce.

While this issue drags on, Maynilad is asking the government to compensate it for the deferment of the arbitral award—about P3.44 billion in foregone revenues from January 2013 to February 2015.

That claim would increase by about P208 million a month for every month that MWSS does not fully implement the arbitral award.

It seems that the tab will be growing and growing, while Maynilad’s hopes of a quick resolution is going down the drain.–Riza T. Olchondra

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