Another letter has reached the country’s seat of power concerning the mounting opposition to the Philippine Port Authority’s (PPA) planned new container tracking and monitoring system.
The letter of appeal that was sent to President Marcos—seen by Biz Buzz over the weekend —details the opposition of 10 off-dock and off-terminal facility operators to the controversial implementation of PPA’s Trusted Operator Program-Container Registry Monitoring System.
Other trade and industry stakeholder organizations, which include some of the country’s biggest business groups, also wrote the President last month to oppose the measure.
This new correspondence sent to Malacañang explains that these off-site operators fear that they will be run out of business with the PPA’s plan to establish new staging areas, locations where empty containers will stay while awaiting re-exportation.
The group also cited concerns that they will lose the ability to negotiate with their clients, the shipping lines and importers, as PPA will effectively become a middleman in the dealings.
Sought for comment, Jay Santiago, general manager of PPA, told Biz Buzz that it is not their intention to put people out of business nor were the critics right to conclude that the plan will saddle them with higher costs.
“We have always espoused the professionalization of the different sectors of the logistics industry to make it more transparent and efficient because it is our belief that better transparency and efficiency will be the key to bringing logistics costs down by eliminating avoidable friction costs,” he said.
—Alden M. Monzon
Big ticket water works
President Marcos’ recent trip to Japan reaped a number of big-ticket business deals.
A particular agreement reported by Radio TV Malacañang stands to benefit the people of Cebu, thanks to the Filinvest Group’s expansion to the water business.
Josephine Gotianun-Yap, president of Filinvest Development Corp., joined the trip to sign an agreement with a Japanese conglomerate for the ambitious water works project.
The deal involves the construction of desalination plants in various parts of Metro Cebu to help augment water supply in local water districts like the Metropolitan Cebu Water District.
About 120,000 households in over 40 barangays in the cities of Cebu, Talisay and Lapu-Lapu are expected to benefit from the project. The desalination plants are expected to further boost Cebu’s economic progress. It would also help address the severe shortage of clean potable water in some parts of the island-province that could hobble its growth prospects.
Now which Japanese partner was tapped by Filinvest, you might ask? It’s one of the biggest and most advanced water solutions companies based in Tokyo. Watch this space to find out soon.
— Daxim L. Lucas
To Zoom or not to Zoom?
Are physical annual stockholders’ meetings truly a relic of the prepandemic past? It seems the Zobel-led Ayala Corp. is trying to find out.
The family conglomerate recently announced its next annual meeting would be in a fully virtual format — the general practice of listed Philippine corporations since the global health crisis broke out in 2020.
Curiously, Ayala said a physical meeting could take place should a request be made by a sizeable number of stockholders (holding at least 10 percent of its shares).
The deadline to tell Ayala is on Feb. 27.
We’re not sure many companies actually miss physical stockholders’ meetings. Unless it’s a stopwatch-timed Enrique Razon Jr. company, these can be time consuming and also cost significantly more since a rented venue, food and drinks are expected by shareholders.
Online meetings are also more controlled. For example, controversial questions can be screened and sanitized before the event.
Perhaps the Zobels miss interacting with their shareholders in the same physical space?
We can only speculate at this point but it’s clear many companies are trying to move past the pandemic and its peculiar requirements. Time will tell if more listed firms feel the urge to follow suit.