Biz Buzz: New shooting buddy

Not all government officials get their posts because they are P-Noy’s shooting buddies. In fact, some become shooting buddies because they are government officials.

Case in point is Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares who recently confessed having already fired about 400 rounds under the President’s tutelage.

According to our sources, the BIR chief recently acquired a competition-grade .40-caliber pistol to better hone her skills when firing away at the Presidential Security Group firing range in Malacañang.

No less than P-Noy himself instructs Henares in the finer points of practical shooting, along with his other new shooting buddy, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

Henares has been overheard saying that the President is “a very good instructor” who “is able to translate the principles” of shooting into easy-to-grasp concepts for beginners (P-Noy even trains some of his security people, we’re told).

After four sessions, Henares has now progressed from shooting at stationary paper cutouts at the BSP firing range to plinking pop-up targets at the PSG’s training facility.

To tax cheats who are reading this… you’ve been warned.—Daxim L. Lucas

From defense to offense

Fresh from his successful appearance before the Commission on Appointments last week, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima is eager to go on the offensive against authors of so-called “black operations” aimed at derailing his confirmation.

According to our sources, his first salvo will be a letter of complaint addressed to the owners of a broadsheet newspaper that published—not just once, but twice—a story against Purisima that turned out to be an outright lie.

Both stories were published almost a month apart but repeated the same claim that Purisima, Customs chief Lito Alvarez and “Undersecretary” Willie Parayno had been sued by “concerned Customs employees” before the Ombudsman.

In the complaint letter, DoF lawyers pointed out that the Ombudsman had already issued a certification even before the second article was published that no complaints had been lodged against the officials.

So now that Purisima’s confirmed… it’s payback time.—Daxim L. Lucas

Belated probe

Some stock brokers recently received “love letters” from the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking explanation for trades on a certain publicly listed company from January 2005 to June 2006.

It is unclear at this point whether this is for insider trading or other securities regulation violations, but theories abound as to why such probe is happening now.

These include: a) It’s part of a search for the money trail leading to former Palace occupants, b) it has become politically feasible to conduct such a probe now that there are new Palace occupants, and c) it just takes that much time to build up a case, if there’s any.

For whatever it’s worth, participants are required to keep only five years’ worth of trading documentation, which means that most of what the corporate watchdog may be looking for may have long gone to the shredders.—Doris C. Dumlao

Missing stock dividends

Philippine Stock Exchange investors looking forward to about P750 million in stock dividends declared by the exchange, which was earlier announced as “payable” on June 8, were flabbergasted to find no such stocks were delivered on that date.

Instead, a memo was posted on the PSE website saying the stock dividends would come when approved for listing by the SEC. “Many clients are calling and asking for their shares,” one broker said.

The good news is that the stock dividends can be delivered soon, since the SEC had approved the listing during an en banc meeting last Thursday. –em>Doris C. Dumlao

North Harbor

The government has granted only partial approval to the proposed changes in the commitments that Reghis Romero II’s Manila North Harbour Port Inc. (MNHPI) needs to deliver under its concession to develop the Manila North Harbor, the country’s busiest cargo and passenger hub.

A transport official revealed that the Philippine Ports Authority approved MNHPI’s proposal to develop a different part of North Harbor first, but thumbed down the company’s request to push back the mandated completion of the North Harbor development’s first phase to 2017, from the 2013 deadline set in the contract.

MNHPI has supposedly asked for changes to the P14-billion contract’s terms because the company would not be able to earn as much money as it earlier expected.

“The company’s estimates on the growth of cargo and passenger volumes were too optimistic,” a source said.

Unfortunately for MNHPI, its concession fees to the government were based on these revenue estimates.—Paolo Montecillo

Pension no more

Former employees of National Power Corp., and current employees who are working their way to retirement, may not have any pension to look forward to.

The Government Service Insurance System last month cut off pension payments to employees who were separated from the company in 2003 following the restructuring of the power industry. The reason: A 2009 Supreme Court decision that sided with Napocor management on the issue of retirement benefits and separation pay.

In a May 4 letter to GSIS president and general manager Robert Vergara, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras asked the state pension fund to “understand the plight of these employees and retirees, bearing in mind that they have religiously paid their contributions.”

Employees who were affected and who stood to suffer in the future numbered 8,890.

Vergara explained that the GSIS only stopped issuing pension to retired Napocor employees in compliance with the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.

An earlier agreement called for the legal teams of the GSIS and Napocor to craft a request for a clarificatory opinion from the Department of Justice regarding the issue. But while awaiting the DoJ opinion, no pension would be released to retired employees.

However, more than a month after that exchange, the DoJ opinion had yet to be issued, and retirees, and even current employees, are becoming restless. Everything is still up in the air, apparently.—Abigail L. Ho