Biz Buzz: ‘Eagle’ family trouble

Trouble is brewing in the family that pioneered the auto glass (hint hint!) industry in the Philippines, according to our sources at Biz Buzz. As is common with wealthy families, this growing controversy is about—you guessed it—money.

Specifically, it seems that one of the family members has allegedly been cheated out of his inheritance. After their remaining parent passed away a couple of years ago, our aggrieved man woke up to the realization that there was never a discussion about his parents’ estate between his two remaining siblings (the eldest had already passed away) and himself.

First, he tried the nice route, asking them numerous times about the estate and inheritance issue but was met with shrugs or deafening silence. So after several unanswered calls and text messages to his siblings, he had his attorney contact them.

For some reason, the siblings were quicker to respond. (Don’t you just love lawyers?)

The siblings agreed to meet at the Manila Polo Club. And it was in that most refined of settings—amid the clinking of wine glasses and the sight of well-groomed thoroughbreds—that he was flatly told everything was gone, and that whatever was left was sold.

It seems that the properties in question were put in his siblings’ names and things were happening without his knowledge.

After the parents pass away, don’t heirs sit down with a lawyer to settle probate anymore? Remember the good old days when siblings actually cared about each other?

What a tragedy. Daxim L. Lucas

Brewing toll dispute

THE TOLL road arm of Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Metro Pacfiic Investments Corp. is already mulling over its next steps over multiyear toll rate increase petitions for its North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and Manila Cavite Expressway (Cavitex).

While the group has already filed dispute notices with the Toll Regulatory Board for NLEx and Cavitex, we’re hearing that talks with the government were not amounting to very much so far and an arbitration case was very much in the cards. After all, these aren’t small sums we’re talking about: That’s P2.44 billion being sought in forgone revenues for NLEx and P719 million for the smaller Cavitex over the last three years.

There is also the bigger question on uncertainties raised by a situation where business contracts are not honored by the government. Our source said they were forced to file the dispute notice as they were effectively being “ignored” by the TRB. “They were not minding us. They would not even reject the toll hike petitions,” one of our insiders said.

Both tollroads have different mechanisms for dealing with disputes, but we understand Cavitex can proceed with arbitration by November this year while NLEx can do so by April next year. The administration, of course, may be cautious about any kind of price increase with elections coming up.

However, the delay carries bigger implications, such as whether it’s fair for the broader public—including those who do not use either NLEx or Cavitex—to foot the bill in case the government loses a potential arbitration case. The government may also choose to lengthen the concession term, but this might not sit well with the tollroad operator.

All parties, we believe, would like to avoid any sort of legal entanglement but that depends entirely on how ongoing mediation talks proceed. Miguel R. Camus

Ease of doing business… backfiring

THE PHILIPPINES’ initiatives to streamline business and corporate registration requirements and become globally competitive in terms of ease of doing business have had some ugly repercussions as far as the crackdown on investment scammers are concerned.

This was based on the personal (she stresses this is not the official view) opinion of Lalaine Monserate, Securities and Exchange Commission assistant director in charge of investigations and prosecution division. Monserate, who was a resource speaker when Sun Life launched its slam-the-scam campaign, said the simplification of procedures to start doing business had only made it easier for scammers to form one layer of corporation after another that, in turn, made it difficult for an undermanned SEC to track them.

Whenever one company has been flagged for fraudulent activities, she said scammers would only transfer operations to another company.  Easing doing business will thus have to be balanced with more safety nets to filter the unscrupulous. And to be more effective, especially in this day and age when Internet and social media could be used as a platform to promote scams, Monserate said the SEC would also need to have its own division or office focusing on cybercrimes.

She noted that the National Bureau of Investigation already had its hands full with probing so many regular crimes such that the SEC would have to boost its own capability. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

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