Now to find the perpetrators

More clarity is coming to the fore after the country’s largest financial institution and its clients were hit by a spate of fraudulent online transactions over the weekend.

On Tuesday, it was confirmed that “close to 700” BDO Unibank account holders were victimized by what appears to be a sophisticated hacking incident involving so-called one-time passwords used to authenticate the identity of users.

Some industry insiders believe someone with knowledge of the bank’s IT infrastructure “compromised” the decade-old system that was set to be decommissioned by early next year.

The good news, however, is that no less than the bank’s chair and president moved swiftly to reassure the affected clients that their losses would be reimbursed. Both BDO Unibank chair Teresita Sy-Coson and president Nestor Tan said that clients who lost money in this incident would be compensated.

Thankfully for all relevant stakeholders, the fraud was stopped and contained to a relatively small group compared to the millions of account holders the bank has, and the P3.5 trillion in assets it controls (the original Manila Bulletin report on the issue said the stolen funds were transferred to Union Bank of the Philippines where it was used to buy P5 million in Bitcoins).

Now, with the victimized account holders being rightfully taken care of by BDO, it behooves the bank and the authorities—especially the Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas—to dig deeper into the electronic money trail to find the perpetrators. In particular, the so-called “mules” for this high tech thievery should be easy to identify. Abangan! — Daxim L. Lucas

Property Man of the Year

Frederick Go, president of Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC), won the 2021 “Prix D’Excellence Award Property Man of the Year” from FIABCI (Fédération Internationale des Administrateurs de Bien-Conselis Immobiliers or the the International Real Estate Federation) during the recently held FIABCI Philippines Property and Real Estate Awards.

“It is an honor to be your Property Man of the Year. This is an award that is, and will always be, a result of the dedicated and collective teamwork of our people at Robinsons Land. At RLC, we continuously strive to create shared success with every Filipino through the projects we build, the communities we shape, and the sustainable practices we promote. Winning an award drives me to strive harder, and this will fuel RLC Residences to keep building dreams so Filipinos can live their best lives,” Go said.

Two RLC Residences developments also obtained gold recognition in the high-rise residential category. The Magnolia Residences in Quezon City bagged the Gold Award for National Capital Region, while AmiSa Private Residences in Cebu bagged the same award for the Visayas region.

In a statement, FIABCI Philippines said the criteria used for judging this year’s nominees had been adopted from the FIABCI-World’s Prix d’Excellence, touted as the “Oscars” of the global real estate industry. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Chamber changeover

Michael Toledo is now at the helm of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP).

COMP, an association of the biggest large-scale mining companies in the country, this week announced the election of Toledo as its new chair, replacing Gerard Brimo who had been holding the chamber’s top post since 2017.

Brimo, chair of Nickel Asia Corp., will remain in the COMP’s board of trustees and assumes the post of vice chair alongside Filminera Resources Corp. chair Gloria Tan-Climaco.

A lawyer by profession, Toledo is the chief operating officer of Silangan Mindanao Mining Co. He also heads the government and public affairs group of listed conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

He also served as press secretary during the administration of President Estrada.COMP said Toledo would steer the association “as the nation prepares to elect a new administration that the mining industry hopes will continue to promote business stability and investor confidence.”

During his term, Brimo helped the chamber navigate through a challenging regulatory environment.

It was also under his leadership that the COMP saw the government’s lifting of a nine-year moratorium on new mining permits and continues to advocate for the lifting of a ban on open-pit mining.

Aside from that, the COMP became the first mining association in Asia to adopt the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) program developed by the Mining Association of Canada.

“TSM is rapidly becoming a global environment, social, and governance standard for mining and has now been adopted by 10 national mining associations, including more recently the Minerals Council of Australia,” it added.

Brimo, Gloria Tan-Climaco and Eulalio Austin will remain as ex-officio members of the TSM Advisory Panel “to provide industry perspectives during deliberations in the 15-person multi-stakeholder policy-making body.”

Austin will also stay as COMP trustee, along with Joan Adaci-Cattiling (OceanaGold Philippines Inc. president), Dante Bravo (Platinum Group Metals Corp. president), Antonio Co (Carrascal Nickel Corp. president), Isidro Consunji (Berong Nickel Corp. chair and chief executive officer), Masahiro Kamiya (Sumitomo Metal Mining Philippine Holdings Corp. chair and president), Joaquin Lagonera (Sagittarius Mines, Inc. president), Yulo Perez (TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. president), Adrian Ramos (Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. president) Horacio Ramos (Pacific Nickel Philippines, Inc. president) Bryan Yap (Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. president and CEO) and Martin Antonio Zamora (Nickel Asia president and CEO). —Jordeene B. Lagare