Biz Buzz: Mining confab minus the miners

The organizers of the two-day International Conference on Mining in Mindanao late last week in Ateneo de Davao University seem to have had a pre-ordained result in mind.

The day before, a representative of the organizers went on air in a morning talk show inviting the public to participate as long as they can afford the P1,000 fee.

On the first day of the conference, long lines of delegates were filtered by three checkpoints to weed out representatives from the mining industry. They were simply told that they were not on the list of the “by-invitation-only” conference.

Miners were baffled by the organizers’ restrictions. Why did they invite the general public, but prevent the entry of willing participants?

The mining industry, led by the Chamber of Mines and mining companies in Mindanao, actually knew from the start that the conference was anti-mining in nature. Yet they requested through official letters to be part of the conference. Their requests fell on deaf ears.

When asked why he did not allow representatives from the mining industry to participate, Fr. Joel Tabora S.J., president of the Ateneo de Davao University, was quoted by a local newspaper as saying: “There is a need to gather a homogenous group in order for the participants to level off in their campaigns. After the gathering, the group will then schedule a dialogue with those that are identified as pro-mining.”

Some less rabid environmentalists were disgusted with the way the conference was organized. Even two prominent environmentalists did not bother to finish the conference, one of them describing the affair as “very divisive.”

The other said the conference was “for the anti-mining people only. It is not appropriate to label it as an ‘International Conference on Mining in Mindanao.’ The real miners were not allowed to participate. How can you call that a mining conference? They should have called it an ‘anti-mining conference.’”

The ensuing press conference was the clincher. Only media people identified with anti-mining NGOs were allowed to join the briefing. Other local media people were prevented from participating in the press conference. A local journalist laughed it off as “a press conference without the press.”—Daxim L. Lucas

IPO for PBB

After an eight-year lull, more banks are planning a stock market debut this 2012. Philippine Business Bank (PBB), the thrift banking arm of Zest-O group founder Alfredo Yao, is also keen on bringing his bank to public hands.

“We are preparing now,” Yao said in a recent interview, acknowledging that the market looked suitable for an initial public offering. The business magnate, who also owns budget carrier Zest Air, is hoping that the upbeat sentiment on equities would continue to pave the way for an IPO in the last quarter of this year.

As we cited last week, the Gotianun-led East West Bank has started the ball rolling with an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct an IPO worth up to $153 million (P6.6 billion). Based on feng shui, after all, banking is among the “lucky” businesses in this Year of the Water Dragon.

Yao is not in a hurry to comply with public listing requirements because PBB is still a savings bank. But such an IPO may allow PBB—which recently named treasury veteran Roland Avante as its new president—to execute Yao’s grand expansion plans for the bank. If given the chance in the future, Yao says PBB prefers to skip regular commercial banking and instead leapfrog right away to universal banking.—Doris C. Dumlao

No tie? No problem!

As is now known, Gawad Kalinga and Habitat for Humanity, together with conglomerate San Miguel Corp., broke ground last week on a massive housing project in the Cagayan de Oro-Iligan corridor for victims of Typhoon Sendong.

But the P500-million project had an interesting, almost lighthearted start.

At the signing ceremony for the deal recently, Habitat’s local boss, Fernando Zobel de Ayala, showed up in his usual dashing self—shirt, jacket and all—but without a tie. Upon seeing the assembled officials from the government and the private sector, the Zobel scion offered profuse apologies to his hosts for coming to the affair “underdressed.”

Underdressed? No problem, apparently. SMC president Ramon Ang—pulling out all the stops to make his guest feel comfortable—slipped into the restroom to take off his own necktie.

Seeing him emerge “tie-less,” SMC’s ranking brass had little choice but to discreetly remove their own ties (in true “follow the leader” fashion).

We might have just imagined it, but the atmosphere in the room relaxed considerably after everyone loosened their stiff collars.—Daxim L. Lucas

Heart of gold

Speaking of philanthropy, who would have guessed that this low-key but fast-rising Filipino-Chinese businessman is a close buddy of publicist and talk show host Boy Abunda?

Shortly after typhoon Sendong unleashed its fury on Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, the media-shy tycoon immediately consulted Abunda how he could be of help. Our source said the businessman felt that “Tito Boy” would be able to ensure that his multimillion-peso donation would find its way to the victims with the help of ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Foundation.

Apparently, the two have done this before, since the businessman has long been a generous but silent donor to many worthy causes.

Watch out for this emerging taipan as he joins the ranks of the country’s biggest philanthropists. Those who know him say he is “pure” of heart, while others claim he has a heart of “gold.” Take your pick.—Daxim L. Lucas

What size Philippines?

At the recent workshop on the Philippine Statistical Development Program (PSDP), users of data on population, health and education, as well as representatives of local government units (LGUs), had a common question: How many people are there in the Philippines?

Two weeks prior, at the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Vice President Jejomar Binay said the Philippine population was estimated at “almost 102 million.”

Wouldn’t policy makers, educators, marketers, real estate developers, social and health program planners, and just about anyone planning anything for the Philippines, want to know?

LGU representatives attending the PSDP certainly clamored for the 2010 data. Apparently some LGUs had their budget allocations trimmed when the 2007 census showed they had fewer people than before. Some LGUs that conducted their own local censuses (which are not considered official for national purposes) apparently had different numbers.

How many people are there in the Philippines?

The answer, it seems, is not with the National Statistics Office (NSO) but with Malacañang, since NSO cannot release the data until it is deemed “official.” The 2010 census was apparently submitted to Malacañang last January 2, the first working day of the year.

Just for today, at least, the 2010 census data can probably wait as government releases economic growth figures. Tomorrow, we can go back to asking just how many people there are in the Philippines, and all the other questions relating to that.—Riza Olchondra

Taguig-Makati war ends

The Regional Trial Court of Pasig City recently denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Makati City and sustained the territorial jurisdiction of Taguig City over Fort Bonifacio.

In doing so, Judge Leili Cruz Suarez of Pasig RTC Branch 153 affirmed the earlier decision by then Judge Briccio C. Ygaña, who had retired on July 9, 2011.

It said that the decision sustained the jurisdiction of Taguig City over the 200-hectare Bonifacio Global City complex, as well as the portions of Fort Bonifacio where the Philippine Army headquarters, Navy installation, Marines headquarters, consular area, Jusmag area, Heritage Park, Libingan ng mga Bayani, AFP Officers Village and the so-called six villages are located.

Taguig Representative Freddie Tiñga, who served as three-term mayor of the city, expressed elation over the decision on the hotly contested territory.

The decision also declared unconstitutional presidential proclamations made in 1986 and 1990 for altering the boundaries of Taguig City without the benefit of a plebiscite.

As the proclamations covered the barangays of Cembo, South Cembo, West Cembo, East Cembo, Comembo, Pembo and Pitogo, the decision in effect ordered Makati to yield jurisdiction over these seven barangays surrounding the military camp in Taguig City.

The legal battle with Makati spanned 19 years. Whew.—Margie Q. Espino

UP tuition payments go online

Lining up for hours to enroll and pay college tuition will soon be a thing of the past—at least where the University of the Philippines is concerned.

At a recent consultative workshop on the formulation of the Philippine Statistical Development Program, Lisa Grace Bersales, the university’s vice president for finance and planning, said there was a move to consolidate the online presence of the university’s many campuses into “one UP.”

But wait, there’s more. “We will soon be accepting tuition payments online and by credit card,” she said.

It is a work in progress, she noted, but no matter. This early, we can hear the chorus of hurrahs.—Riza T. Olchondra

Starting with the least

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will soon catch up—fingers crossed—in ICT connectivity with its more developed neighbors down south.

A $33-million project aimed at improving telecommunications and information technology services in rural areas of BIMP-EAGA (Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Philippines-East Asean Growth Area) could start rolling out in May with the impoverished ARMM as the kick-off area.

ICT expert Alfredo Panizales, president and CEO of EA Trilink Corp., which will be involved in laying down the infrastructure, said the project was good to go (needing just an endorsement at the Asean Leaders Summit in Phnom Penh in April to get rolling).

Following this, the two-year rollout would have ICT kiosks sprouting in 30 towns and villages in Mindanao initially, with installations in Palawan to follow. The kiosks are apparently designed to host telecommunications, broadband Internet, money remittance and Wi-Fi services. Talk about hi-tech!—Riza T. Olchondra

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