Biz Buzz: Pros and Cons

It always pays to be more circumspect especially with individuals you partner with in business. Sadly, though, two unassuming but very successful Chinoy brothers—known for their wine and gourmet food business—seems to have learned this the hard way.

According to our sources, the friendship of the two “Pros” was won by two other individuals (whom we’ll refer to as the Cons) to open and invest in a company back in 2006. The company sold branded, high-value firearms as a way of helping the Philippines’ Trap and Skeet Olympic team. The arrangement was for the Pros to come up with the bulk of the equity while the Cons would run the company.

Fast forward to 2010. Little did the Pros know that the Cons had, by then, managed to manipulate things so they ended with full control over the company and its multimillion-peso resources. The situation turned nasty and led to suits and counter-suits the Pros and the Cons threw at each other.

People in the know were aghast at how the Cons manipulated things with the help of lawyers who agreed to help them in exchange for a considerable percentage of the company’s assets (we hear there is still some P20 million worth of firearms and ammunition now on hold in Camp Crame).

Friends of the Pros started snooping around to find out more about the Cons and all were shocked with what they discovered: Con #1, the son of a retired police general, was arrested by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms unit (ATF) and convicted (together with his brother) in the United States for trafficking of firearms and ammunition in 1985.

Both were sentenced to serve time in federal prison and subsequently deported back to the Philippines (the son of Con #1 is also currently facing frustrated murder charges in Taguig City after having stabbed the son of a prominent PR practitioner).

Meanwhile, Con #2 is the happy-go-lucky type who is married to a well-to-do wife and resides in a posh residential subdivision in Makati City (raising the eyebrows of some people in high society circles).

As this sad story goes, it was supposedly Con #2 who masterminded the deed to wrest control the company from his partners, the Pros. According to our sources, Cons #1 and #2 are trying to get certain media people to publish their side of the dispute (so far with practically no success).

Moral of the story: Be careful whom you deal with.—Daxim L. Lucas

Asiatrust breakthrough

The sale of a controlling stake in Asiatrust Development Bank may finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The state-owned Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. is now willing to offer sweeteners (at its own expense) to whoever takes over the publicly listed thrift bank, banking sources said.

Asiatrust, which counts the Social Security System and Asian Development Bank among its strategic shareholders (partners of the controlling Garcia family), has long been on the auction block. One complication, though, was the SSS’ insistence that it must be paid for its stake at a preferred price.

But a compromise is now shaping up to ensure an exit mechanism for the SSS and thus paving the way for the auction of Asiatrust under the auspices of the PDIC, according to banking sources. The bidding will likely be based on who will need the lowest financial assistance from PDIC.

Consuelo Garcia, country chief of ING—the financial adviser tapped by Asiatrust shareholders—declined to discuss the transaction except to say: “It’s moving in the right direction.” She added: “It’s not moving as fast as we want to but it’s moving.”—Doris C. Dumlao

Teves in Mandarin

Former Finance Secretary Gary Teves, who revived his consultancy firm Think Tank Inc. after bowing out of government service, is now making waves in the Middle Kingdom.

He recently gained a regional audience with the translation into Mandarin and the reprinting in China of his collection of speeches “Teves Speaks II.”  The book was reprinted by the Guangxi Normal University Press and recently launched in Guilin, the former capital of Guangxi and the center of culture, politics and history.

As an additional feather in Teves’ cap, the Guilin University of Electronic Technology named him visiting professor, while the Nanning-based think tank, China-Asean Economic and Culture Research Center, appointed him senior adviser.

Guangxi is China’s gateway to Southeast Asia and home to 55 million people (yes, more than half the Philippines’ population).—Doris C. Dumlao

Mindoro mining ban’s big winners

Nine years ago, Oriental Mindoro’s provincial council passed a resolution imposing a 25-year moratorium on mining. The objective was to protect and preserve the pristine environmental condition of the province.

Of particular concern was preserving the scenic and pristine Mount Halcon (which was even closed off to trekkers for five years in 2005 to allow its denuded flora to regenerate). Truly, the policy made more good media mileage, given many well-meaning environmentalists wanting to protect Mother Nature.

According to our source, however, the situation at Mount Halcon is as bad as ever, with one group of environmentalist-mountaineers recently describing chancing upon a scene of felled trees, big and small, and native Mangyans (the indigenous people of the area) piggybacking large sacks of charcoal (made from the trees via the so-called kaingin system) on their way to be sold as fuel to the lowlanders. At the same time, illegal small-scale mining has apparently continued in the province all throughout this period.

How could such ecological destruction have gone unnoticed despite the moratorium? It is a sad commentary about how political leaders all too easily capitulate to the whims of pseudo-environmentalists who want legitimate mining concerns blocked, but turn a blind eye to illegal miners, poachers and illegal loggers.—Daxim L. Lucas

P20M chopper ride

One of our Biz Buzz sources insist that investigations on the anomalous sale of helicopters to the Philippine National Police should also cover other transactions using government funds (as corresponding plunder cases have already been filed before the Ombudsman against the people who appeared to be responsible in the PNP transactions).

People in Puerto Princesa, in particular, have questions of their own regarding a helicopter the city government purchased before the 2001 elections. The city government paid P20 million for the chopper, which was supposedly to be used for its Bantay Dagat and Bantay Gubat activities.

Although there was no misrepresentation that it was brand-new, the chopper flew only once. After its first flight, it never went up again because it appeared that the chopper had already exceeded its allowable flying time (say what?!).

The chopper was parked for a long time near the Air Force hangar in Puerto Princesa City until it just suddenly vanished. Until now, nobody in Puerto Princesa has seen it again, leaving people to wonder about its fate. Did the city government sell it? If so, were the proceeds turned over to the city coffers? Hmmm. Worth investigating.—Daxim L. Lucas

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