Biz buzz: Gov’t video-conferencing demo fails

Even the most well-crafted plans hit snags.

Take the newly formed Department of Information and Communications Technology, which held its first summit Tuesday. It was a success, except for an ironic technology glitch that hit early on.

A major theme at the summit actually combined two problems that consumers face daily. That’s the horrible traffic—and internet services that a good deal of Filipinos say can be much faster and reliable.

To help solve that, the DICT said more people should consider telecommuting, or working from home while interfacing with officemates via video conferencing or other internet-based applications. Too bad the actual video conferencing demonstration didn’t go exactly as planned.

Being connected via video to the DICT’s guests and speakers at the Makati Shangri-La Ballroom was none other than Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella, who was also holding a press conference at Malacañang. For a spokesman, Abella did little communicating, or rather, guests didn’t hear parts of it given disappearing audio signals. Some sounds that came through were garbled, too.

One guest described parts of the exchange as “cringe-worthy” and we imagine many company bosses worry about this exact scenario when considering allowing employees to telecommute. Turns out, it wasn’t faulty internet signals from our telco providers but a series of other unfortunate events.

First, a fire drill at Malacañang was held minutes before, meaning certain electronic systems were apparently reset, affecting their video conferencing settings. That led to a decision to use the equipment of government broadcaster People’s Television Network. The hitch: PTV’s analog systems were not entirely compatible with Shangri-La’s digital infrastructure.

DICT later in the summit tested the video conferencing system. No more Secretary Abella but a group of tech experts on the other end of the screen. It worked just fine. —Miguel R. Camus

PEP buy-in

When he bowed out as chair and president of Maybank ATR Kim Eng Securities six months ago, it was unthinkable that Lorenzo Andres “Randy” Roxas would retire too soon. Many have been expecting that after his garden leave or cool-off period with Maybank ATR (where he worked for 25 years), he would be back in the stockbrokerage business.

We heard that Roxas is indeed set to finalize this week a deal to buy into brokerage house Philippine Equity Partners Inc. (PEP).  At present, Roxas is already listed on PEP’s website as its managing director.

As we all know, PEP is an institutional brokerage house formed in 2001 as a result of the local management buyout of the Philippine unit of Merrill Lynch. It was formed at the time when there was an exodus of foreign investors and brokers post-Asian crisis but the local team decided to form a new entity to take over Merrill Lynch’s business. To date, PEP still executes trades for Bank of America Merrill Lynch and issues co-branded research with it. It has consistently posted one of the largest turnovers among independent and locally owned brokerage houses in the stock market.

Following Roxas’ entry, PEP chair Jojo Madrid is still expected to hold the biggest interest in the brokerage house.  Roxas and Jojo Gonzales, president and head of research, will have almost equal interest and become the next biggest shareholders.

But wait, Roxas isn’t the only new investor buying into PEP.  We heard from a reliable source that simultaneous with his entry, Rodney Ward, former chair of BA Merrill (and before that chair of UBS Investment Banking), will also acquire an interest in PEP.

Meanwhile, Joseph Higdon, former fund manager at fund management firm Capital Research, has also joined the PEP board as an independent director. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Tax reform point man

As the Duterte administration wanted comprehensive tax reform in place within the next three years, the Department of Finance has designated Undersecretary Karl Chua as full-time point person for the initiative.

Chua, who joined the administration as the DOF’s chief economist, will now be in charge of ensuring that the government would be able to foster a simpler, fairer and more efficient system for taxpayers, while also generating an additional P600 billion in revenues by 2019 to fund the P1 trillion in investments needed yearly to slash the poverty incidence and sustain robust economic growth.

The former World Bank senior economist for the Philippines is no stranger to the push for tax reform as during his stint at the multilateral lender, he had been pitching for the adjustment of excise tax on oil products, citing sizable foregone revenues from low rates that remained unchanged for almost two decades.

The plan to raise fuel excise taxes is part of the first of six proposed tax reform packages, which would also adjust personal income tax brackets to correct “income creeping,” reduce the maximum rate to 25 percent over time (save for the “ultra-rich” who would be slapped a higher 35 percent), as well as shift to a simpler modified gross system.

While the DOF last September already submitted to both houses of Congress the proposed bill containing the first package, a number of legislators have expressed reservations or opposition to the compensating measures to fill the gap from expected foregone revenues from lower income tax rates, which, besides higher oil taxes, include expanding the VAT base by limiting exemptions to raw food, education and health products and services, and also jacking up the excise tax slapped on certain vehicles.

In particular, many legislators were against the proposed removal of the exemption from 12-percent VAT of senior citizens’ non-essential purchases (such as dining out in restaurants), even as the DOF had maintained that such exemption was not fair to indigent seniors who could not afford luxury goods and services.

We wish Chua the best of luck as it could be an uphill battle for him and the DOF to convince legislators as well as stakeholders (not to mention lobbyists who may be or against certain tax reform proposals) given the three-year time frame they were looking for the entire program to pass in Congress and be implemented.

Meanwhile, given Chua’s new responsibility, the former DOF chief economist, Undersecretary Gil Beltran, got his old post back while also serving as the agency’s anti-red tape czar. —Ben O. de Vera