Biz Buzz: Alvarez in the cross hairs

An organized campaign to get P-Noy to fire Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez is in full swing.

During the President’s recent visit to Davao City, parties working for the Customs chief’s removal peppered some roads and highways with anti-Alvarez posters and banners (“Lito Alvarez, Bureau of Customs Commissioner: Alisin Na!!! Ngayon na!!!”).

Mind you, these weren’t just makeshift placards. These were tarpaulin-printed posters, indicating some level of planning and budgeting involved. More importantly, these weren’t indiscriminately plastered around the city. Whoever made the posters knew exactly where to install so that the President would see them.

The main suspect is a firm with significant operations in Mindanao, a subject of a recent smuggling complaint filed with the DoJ.

Sources said Alvarez’ critics have put before the President the name of Northern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan—due to retire from the service in July—as a potential replacement.—Daxim L. Lucas

Costly elections

The Philippine Stock Exchange is in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission because of alleged lapses in the implementation of the nomination and election (Nomelec) rules during the recent board elections. The PSE will likely be penalized for violating rules “relative to clearances not properly given to candidates” and this may cost the bourse P1 million, a source said.

This is about the same fine the PSE was slapped with after lawyer Val Suarez was appointed bourse president, a move that was contested by the SEC.

The fine is not specifically over the still-pending questions about the qualifications of Brokers “A” and “B” (see previous editions). Even ahead of the Broker A and B issue, sources said the SEC had written the PSE to question the clearance given by the Nomelec to certain broker-candidates given its own rule that only candidates from brokerage houses without Securities Regulation Code violations would be allowed to run.

If the Nomelec had followed the rules, then only three broker-candidates on the list could have run.—Doris C. Dumlao

<strong<Growing investor base

Thanks to the bull run late last year, and to the financial literacy campaigns of the PSE, brokers and fund managers, the number of stock market investors in the country now exceeds the daily foot traffic in a typical SM mall.

Investor accounts now number close to 500,000, a 4.8-percent increase from 2009, the PSE said.

Accounts held by local investors constituted 98.5 percent of the total while foreign accounts cornered 1.5 percent. Both local and foreign accounts grew in 2010 by 4.6 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively. Most of these are male, but female investors were noted to be more active.

Based on annual income, individuals earning above P1 million yearly represent 36.7 percent of retail investors. More than one-third earn between P500,000 and P1 million a year.—Doris C. Dumlao

Octogenarian mountaineer

After putting the Lopez group’s fiscal house in order and passing the baton to his son Federico (a.k.a. “Piki”), patriarch Oscar Lopez had another personal dream: to conquer Southeast Asia’s highest peak, Mount Kinabalu in Borneo. This aspiration became a reality two weeks ago as the 81-year-old—with a 24-member entourage that included seven of his children—climbed 13,435 feet above sea level to reach the summit.

Lopez and his entourage spent four days on the world’s 20th tallest mountain, taking three days to ascend and another day to descend. It’s usually enough for the average climber to scale Mt. Kinabalu for a day but because of his advanced age, it took his party three days to reach the summit. It was a very “emotional” climb, his son said.

Piki reported the mountaineering feat to the stockholders of First Philippine Holdings Corp. on Monday.

“It was a climb that can physically and mentally challenge even the fittest of us weekend warriors. At my age two months shy of being 50, I consider it a personal achievement. But to witness your father, your chairman emeritus, brave the elements over four days, soldier on and scale such a mountain, was a most moving and inspiring experience,” Piki said.—Doris C. Dumlao

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