BIZ BUZZ: From MBC to BSP

Ex-business journalist Francisco “Coco” Alcuaz was sighted last Friday night attending the annual reception for the banking community hosted by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona Jr. at Fort San Antonio Abad. He was there as a guest representing the influential Makati Business Club (MBC) as its executive director.

But not for long.

Effective April 1, we hear from the reliable grapevine that Alcuaz will make the BSP his new home to head the strategic communication and advocacy office. He will take over the post vacated by Tony Lambino, who is back at Ayala Group leading the philanthropic arm of the country’s oldest conglomerate.

The BSP had headhunted for months for someone with just as much gravitas to replace Lambino, and Alcuaz—formerly Bloomberg News Philippine bureau chief and ANC anchor and business news head—fits the bill.

This means that MBC, in turn, will have to appoint a new executive director soon. It has enough time as Alcuaz isn’t stepping down until late March. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

Sky-PLDT deal fallout

As Sky Cable Corp. wraps up its P6.75-billion sale of broadband business and other related assets to PLDT Inc., the labor union of the ABS-CBN Corp. unit is decrying the job losses resulting from the merger.

READ: PCC approves sale of Sky Cable broadband business to PLDT

Sky Employees’ Union (SEU), in a Facebook post, said that 80 employees were retrenched after the Sky-PLDT deal was given the green light by the regulators.

The company reasoned out that employees were let go due to redundancy in positions with the looming merger, SEU said. The union called on the company to respect their collective bargaining agreement and to refrain from union busting.

SEU said it would fight for the employees’ rights and coordinate with legal counsel for the next steps.

Biz Buzz has reached out to the company for a response but has yet to receive one.

Now, the question is: Is there still hope for these retrenched employees to have their jobs back? Let’s see! —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad

New BSP consumer survey coming soon

The government will spend P19.3 million to conduct the BSP’s first “Consumer Payments Survey” (CPS)—a new nationwide poll that focuses on payment choices of Filipino consumers.

The CPS aims to collect information on Filipino consumers’ awareness, ownership and usage of different payment instruments such as cash, check, ATM/debit card, bank payment instruction, credit card, e-money and prepaid cards issued by nonbank/nonelectronic money issuers.

At the same time, the survey will help the central bank understand how consumers choose among these payment instruments.

The BSP plans to conduct the CPS every two years.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, which reviewed and greenlighted the conduct of the survey, the data collection for the CPS will start in Febuary 2024 and the results are expected to be released by August 2024.

The central bank said that data collected from the CPS would be used in the formulation of policies on digital payments in the Philippines, and help the BSP in forecasting demand for physical cash, which is critical in the conduct of monetary policy. —Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral INQ