Biz Buzz: Ayala Alabang debate rages

Amid heated legal debates among residents on the opening of new gates at the village, Barangay Ayala Alabang Village recently invoked police power to open a new gate at Champaca Street, citing pursuit of “general welfare, health and safety, peace and order (and preservation of) the comfort and convenience of its inhabitants.”

The chieftain, Ruben Baes, in a column in the village newsletter, said a barangay ordinance was passed on May 22, opening the Champaca gate in early June from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Mondays to Saturdays.

“The ordinance has stipulated that the gate will be manned by barangay enforcers who will ensure that only vehicles bearing the AAVA (Ayala Alabang Village Association) resident/tenant stickers may be allowed entry,” he said.

AAVA—which has been the key proponent of the opening of new gates in the village—also obtained a favorable ruling from the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), which lifted an earlier cease and desist order against the village referendum on the opening of the gates.

The HLURB said the complainants (residents opposed to the opening of the gate) “have no enforceable rights to show which are entitled to injunctive protection.”  The agency argued that the right that the complainants sought to protect “by their own allegation, belongs to ALI (Ayala Land Inc., the property developer) and not to them.”  ALI was cited as the entity which had the “legal personality to enforce, and not the complainants.”

ALI has required written approval from 75 percent of affected homeowners as a key condition to the opening of the gate and not just consent from the majority of village homeowners.

But homeowners who are opposed to the opening of the gate aren’t giving up on their crusade.  Lawyer Michelle Victoria Basco said in a letter to the barangay captain: “The passing of the said ordinance with full and complete knowledge of the injunction and the CA (Court of Appeals) case shows your intention or willingness to interfere with the ongoing legal processes at the RTC (Regional Trial Court) and the CA.”   She was referring to an injunction sought by ALI on the opening of the gates which was still under litigation.

Basco argued that such action of the barangay was a ground for disciplinary action under the Local Government Code.

“Please do not entertain the idea that you and the kagawads are not bound by the ejection because you are not parties to the case. This is incorrect.  It is the rule that one is bound by an injunction even though he is not a party to the suit therefore, if he has notice or knowledge of the injunction, and is within the class of persons whose conduct is intended to be restrained or acts in concert with such a person,” Basco said. “And it is certain that you are aware that the construction of both gates is illegal and in violation of the national building code.”  Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Moving fast

YES, the the country’s telecom duopoly is here to stay, as PLDT and Globe Telecom reinforced their hold on the industry through a P70-billion buyout of San Miguel Corporation’s mobile telephony assets.

This includes, of course, the coveted 700 MHz frequency,  which is key to providing better mobile Internet experience, since this spectrum is the main “highway” used for so-called “4G” or “Long Term Evolution” wireless broadband technology.

While the price tag looks steep for the buyers (and a large windfall for San Miguel), it is by no means an impossible consideration for PLDT and Globe. Biz Buzz learned that San Miguel will receive half of the purchase price now, and the other half in a year’s time, which is no problem at all as it isn’t easy to spend or invest all of $1.5 billion in one go, anyway.

The deal still has to clear some legal hurdles, however, including the newly created Philippine Competitiveness Commission. The agency is legally bound to review transactions of this nature which may or may not reinforce monopolistic (or, in this case, oligopolistic) practices.

While the regulator has remained poker-faced when asked by whether it would approach the deal, journalists were told that both PLDT and Globe had assured San Miguel that they could secure PCC’s approval.

“The position of the two operators is that the transaction serves the public’s interest by making very useful radio frequency spectrum available for immediate use by existing duly-authorized telecom operators serving large numbers of subscribers,” said a briefing document prepared by PLDT and seen by Biz Buzz.

“This deal will help make internet services in the country faster, more reliable and affordable,” PLDT promised.

(Of course, few people believe a third player would be keen to enter the Philippine telecom sector after both PLDT and Globe managed to stymie the moves of San Miguel, which was as bullish an investor as one can want.)

In any case, both PLDT and Globe have moved fast to fire up cell sites that would use the prized (and pricey) 700 MHz broadband frequency including, perhaps somewhat predictably, a PLDT cell site in Davao City’s Matina district. Hey, after all, incoming President Rodrigo Duterte and PLDT chief Manuel Pangilinan have been known to be buddies, right?

Here’s the catch, however: only users of some smart phones using the Android operating system will be able to enjoy the download speed of up to 100 Mbps offered by the new spectrum. That’s because only certain Android phones (like the Samsung Galaxy S7 series) can operate on the 700 MHz frequency. If you’re an Apple iPhone loyalist, you’ll have to wait until the Cupertino, California-based company makes handsets specifically tailored for this high speed network. Tsk.  Daxim L. Lucas

Solo flight? No problem!

WHAT’S a name worth? Apparently a lot, especially if your name is David Leechiu, who in 2015 ended his long-time stint at the helm of the local unit of property consulting and brokerage giant Jones Lang LaSalle.

These days, Leechiu heads his own outfit, called Leechiu Property Consultants. It has yet to celebrate its first anniversary but it looks like the company is already making waves in the industry.

It seems Leechiu made such an impression with previous clients that many were happy to continue dealing with him into his next venture.

Leechiu told Biz Buzz the company was set to end 2016 as the country’s second-biggest brokerage house by revenue. By next year, Leechiu Property will be the largest, he said.

The growth of the company was also a proxy for the appetite for investments—from residential, office and commercial spaces—across the Philippines. Leechiu said his company was looking far beyond Metro Manila to other parts of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

It’s not just about being No. 1 for the young CEO.

“I want to make it meaningful for the people who joined me,” he said.  Miguel R. Camus

‘Game of Trolls’ here to stay

MOST of us, or at least many of the voters who did not choose ‘The Punisher,’ may still be smarting from the total war that the mighty horde of trolls have raised through social media. But with egos battered and minds still anguished, netizens may need to disabuse themselves of the assumption that Rodrigo Duterte’s victory means the barrage of skewed logic, diagonal arguments, vulgarity, etc. had stopped. There are signs this may not happen.

Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez III, incoming Secretary of Finance, helped make this plain during a recent dinner with economic journalists. Asked how the new administration would ensure that suspected corrupt government officials would be effectively sidelined if not removed from office, Dominguez said their actions would not be limited to the filing of charges against such bureaucrats.

He said the Bureau of Internal Revenue, for example, had done so every fortnight in the past six years, but it had nothing to show for it. “They have zero conviction rate, 100-percent failure,” he said.

Dominguez said he would ensure that erring civil servants—at least those facing allegations of corruption—would be put out of the way, relegated to a floating status, to ensure citizens do not have to endure transacting with them.

Beyond that, Dominguez invoked the power of social media, which Duterte’s camp harnessed quite effectively during the campaign. By implication, he meant that erring government employees would be fair game on the Internet.

“Everybody knows the power of social media, and our [machinery] was the best. We have not dismantled it,” he said.

“Here we don’t have to pay editors and resort to other things, Dominguez said. “We can get our message across for free and the way we want it.”

Anyone care for caffeine-flavored blogs? Ronnel Domingo

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