Biz Buzz: Dirty tricks

Even the largest conglomerates become collateral damage for the dirty tricks departments of politicians running for office in next month’s hotly contested national elections.

The most recent “victim” is San Miguel Corp.,  as images circulated on Facebook Thursday of an alleged P500-million payoff the company made to vice presidential candidate Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

Strangely, the alleged payoff was made via a check (a no-no when making secret donations, which should all be done in cash, our sources tell us). Worse, the supposed payment was made through a relatively small BDO branch in Tandang Sora, Quezon City.

What the people who made the fake image failed to take into account was that the alleged check bore two signatures of San Miguel officials. One was a top ranking “Class A” signatory, while the other was a “Class B” signatory.

A source told Biz Buzz that any transaction of the P500-million magnitude would require two Class “A” signatories.

Of course, both San Miguel and BDO issued denials, saying the former had no such account with the latter at the said branch, and San Miguel denied making such payment to the senator as well.

The source exclaimed incredulously to Biz Buzz: “Why would San Miguel give P500 million to Sen. Trillanes? Is he running for President?” Daxim L. Lucas

PPP dead(line)

IT’S unfortunate that President Aquino’s flagship Public Private Partnership Program has lost much steam, especially in the administration’s final months.

In fact, bidders once excited about a fast expanding pipeline are reduced to hoping that the government—the Department of Transportation and Communications, specifically—would bid out just one final PPP.

We’re talking about the operations, maintenance and development contracts for the Bacolod-Silay, Iloilo, Davao, Laguindingan, and New Bohol air gateways, valued at a combined P108 billion. The plan is to modernize these gateways and help lure trade and tourism.

That project, already in the bid submission stage, has been pushed back many times, despite several bidders practically committing they will submit offers.

The DOTC officials we’ve spoken to say they’re hoping it can be done, but it still lacks final approvals. The department’s latest bid bulletin mentioned no bid submission date at all.

Today marks the final day when the DOTC should make a decision on the regional airports, PPP Center executive director Andre Palacios said.

“If no decision is made on a bid submission date during the BAC [bids and awards committee] meeting [Friday] then the window will close,” he said.

We hear the delays are caused by all sorts of fears, not the least of which is the perception that it could look like a midnight deal, despite that fact that this has been many years in the making.

Despite its achievements, the PPP Program recently run into high-profile misfortunes, from the cancellation of a hospital contract, delays in big-ticket railway projects and, more recently, the failure of the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike project bidding.

A successful auction, especially one that guarantees private sector participation, would be a welcome respite. Miguel R. Camus

Coldplay in PH confirmed

RUMORS swirled recently that popular British rock band Coldplay was coming to Manila this year, sparked by a since deleted social media post.

Fortunately for Coldplay fans, Biz Buzz confirmed the news with Hans Sy, president of SM Prime Holdings Inc.

Sy said the band was indeed coming to perform here, at the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds, toward the end of this year. He said the expected huge crowd was unlikely to fit inside the Mall of Asia Arena, which could seat as many as 20,000 people.

Sy said other international stars were being lined up, including the iconic Irish rock band U2, although nothing there has been formally signed.

As for Coldplay, Sy said he wasn’t necessarily a fan but he would attend the concert to make sure everything was in order.

“I’m the best person assigned for this job since I don’t look at personalities,” Sy quipped.

Anyone who has met the SM mall group’s president might agree that he finds little entertainment in such events. That’s not always true, apparently. Sy said he “enjoyed” Madonna’s recent concert, also held at the Arena, despite the multi-hour wait. Miguel R. Camus

‘Industrial peace’ at TV5

THEY’VE had their differences, but it looks like the management and labor union of third-ranked broadcast firm TV5 can look forward to some “industrial peace” for now.

The media company owned by the PLDT group released a statement saying that the firm’s management and union officers signed a deal Thursday afternoon “following an overnight marathon negotiation session” at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCBM) in Intramuros, Manila.

The deal ends a three-month deadlock during which neither side wanted to budge, leading to some worries that yet another strike may be in the offing (and the PLDT group has had its share in recent years).

The company said that senior officials of the NCMB were on hand throughout the negotiation until the deal signing at 5 p.m., “providing conciliation and mediation support to the parties as they hammered out a ‘win-win’ solution to their labor dispute.”

And what kind of deal finally broke the deadlock? The company said that agreement grants wage increases of P1,000/P1,500/P1,500, respectively for each year through 2017, “with a commitment to discuss performance-based wage increases for the 2018 and 2019 CBA years.”

“Union members will also receive a new educational loan assistance benefit of P5,000, for 2016 and 2017; space for a new union satellite office at TV5’s Reliance facility; and increases in the rice subsidy and union leave benefits,” the firm said.

Collective bargaining negotiations hit a deadlock in February of this year.

The company — which has yet to turn a profit since PLDT acquired it in 2009 — said: “Despite challenging financial conditions for the company, which continue to persist, TV5 undertook to give a fair and decent CBA economic package that tried to strike a balance between achieving increases in employee salaries, and ensuring the company’s viability.”

Hopefully, this helps TV5 focus on putting an end to the “red ink” on its financial statements going forward. Daxim L. Lucas

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