BIZ BUZZ: Beware of (mainland) Chinese bearing gifts
With elections just around the corner, the rumor mill is on virtual overdrive. Biz Buzz learned that advisers of one presidential bet have been carefully screening the beeline of donors, politely turning down those with shady backgrounds.
The character checks began when the owners of a giant Chinese gaming firm became one of the big-time donors in the presidential race, offering not just cash but even unlimited use of its fleet of jets.
The Chinese gaming giant, which is said to be in partnership with a local gaming firm, has been throwing so much money into the political ring that some of the presidentiable’s advisers are starting to worry about the funds’ provenance.
There are concerns that the overly generous offer could be coming from illegal sources that may prove troublesome. As such, the candidate’s close advisers are telling their principal to maintain a comfortable distance from the gaming operator lest they end up getting “burned” either by potential laundered funds or fruits of other nefarious activities.
And there’s reason to worry. China’s crackdown against illegal gambling and money laundering is making the Philippines a haven for those avoiding the law.
A number of Chinese gaming tycoons have already made the Philippines their new playground. Some are even toying with the idea of acquiring Filipino citizenship. And why not? Aside from the country’s willingness to host new casinos and all kinds of gaming like e-sabong, Chinese gambling lords probably think having a Philippine passport could protect them from pursuing authorities.
Biz Buzz heard that one Chinese gaming firm has even acquired a significant stake in a Philippine Stock Exchange-listed company. The firm, however, is currently embroiled in a legal tussle over a soured casino-hotel partnership.
Should the listed firm lose the case, its new Chinese owners would also be exposed to billions of pesos in civil liability over alleged unfulfilled contracts and unpaid debts incurred by the original company owners.
But Biz Buzz sources say the Chinese group’s priority is to curry favor with the country’s next set of leaders in hopes of getting preferential treatment if it bets on the right horse.
So reminding them to “beware of Chinese bearing gifts” is probably the best advice to give to the country’s aspiring leaders.
—Daxim L. Lucas
DivinaLaw raring to diversify … into F&B
Nilo Divina celebrated the 16th birthday of his baby, DivinaLaw, with a lavish banquet at the Shangri-La at the Fort enjoyed by the founders, senior partners, associates as well as clients, colleagues and friends who welcomed the opportunity to again meet in-person after years stuck in quarantine.
And while DivinaLaw’s guests were enjoying their calorific desserts, Divina announced that the multiawarded law firm, also deemed among the country’s fastest growing, will face the future “with a strong sense of optimism and exuberant dynamism.”
Divina said the firm would continue to aggressively diversify, not just by beefing up the operations and expanding the market reach of its financial advisory company (Strategic Horizon Consultancy Corp.) and collection agency affiliate (Good Forth Collection), but also by expanding into the food and beverage industry.
“By the third quarter of the year, we will have two restaurants, a fine dining bistro for clients and friends and another one serves comfort meals, with affordable menu and food-to-go options,” he said.
Divina added that Executive Chef Nico Santos promised that the yet-unnamed fine dining restaurant “will be the first Michelin star restaurant in the country.”
He is the first to admit that this as well as the other plans of the law firm are downright “ambitious,” “grand” and “even bordering on hallucination.” But he remains confident that these will all eventually come to pass as DivinaLaw, after all, also started “as a mere ambition by one hallucinating lawyer” 16 years ago.
—Tina Arceo-Dumlao
That viral BPI Tweet
Businesses tend to avoid talking about politics as a tried-and-tested means of self-preservation. But the social media team of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) could not resist an opportunity to take its cybersecurity campaign to viral level using an indirect political undertone.
“If you really need to withdraw, do it yourself. Wag ipagawa sa iba. (Don’t let others do it),” BPI said in its viral #BPIcybersecuriTips Twitter and Facebook message posted a few hours after the much-ballyhooed press conference on Easter Sunday.
In that briefing, presidential candidates Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and former National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales indicated that they would not back out of the derby.
Domagoso said it’s Vice President Leni Robredo who should withdraw from the race, which backfired as this was viewed by many as a misogynist attack against the lone female presidential contender.
As BPI’s message reached a broader audience in this day and age that cybersecurity is just a big a concern as politics, the author of the tweet deserves a big applause.
And to those who may deem this satirical tweet as inappropriate, BPI can always invoke “deconstruction”—a way of analyzing literature that assumes text cannot have a fixed meaning; that the reader has a right to interpret words independent of the meaning intended by the author. In this case, the pun is (likely) intended.
