BIZ BUZZ: Hitching a ride to the Senate

The streets of Metro Manila are teeming with motorcycles nowadays because the pandemic has revealed their usefulness as a means of efficient delivery and public transportation.

While key industry leaders are busy fighting for its legalization (which, by the way, is still in limbo despite many years of pilot study), some rumors have caught our attention.

Word on the street is that a motorcyle taxi player, which was once leading the industry, is silently struggling and has been losing its charm, no thanks to its top honcho’s management blunders.

We recently learned from our sources that the deep pockets of this company, supposedly supported by foreign partners, are getting shallower by the day.

Instead of pouring in money to improve the already glitchy and outdated mobile application, the big boss chooses to lavishly host parties for political friends, whom he plans to leverage for his agenda. This must be a horrifying sight to see for his partner riders whose blood and sweat keep the business alive.

As expected, the mismanagement, copious spending, and unsatisfactory and underfunded platform have earned the ire of both his riders and customers, who are already shifting to better providers.

Instead of addressing the surmounting issues, the big boss is said to have decided to use his political friends, the usual attendees of his parties, in an effort to demonize his competitors. In fact, there is an now ongoing movement in the House panel to revoke the license of one of the players in the pilot study for motorcycle taxis.

As if the plot isn’t thick enough, the big boss, with his newly launched social media channel as an obvious sign, is supposedly also vying for a political seat at no less than the country’s Senate.

The big question now is whether he can devote some of his considerable resources into actually improving the services of his own company before it implodes. Or will they all be oriented toward smearing their competitors? Abangan!

— DAXIM L. LUCAS