Biz Buzz: Breast surgeon falls for fake art

With the entire world flooded with cash in recent years—thanks to historic-low interest rates—it’s no surprise that the well-heeled have been looking for alternative investment opportunities where they could make their millions, or even billions, earn better returns.

One of the newest avenues for putting one’s money to work in the Philippines is, of course, the art scene, which has exploded in recent years, thanks in part to the rising number of rich people chasing a limited number of collectible and “investible” pieces.

But like any market where there is an imbalance of supply and demand, unscrupulous elements will try to make money off unsuspecting buyers, sooner or later.

So it was with this renowned breast surgeon who, just a couple of months ago, decided to make her biggest artwork purchase, to date, when an equally renowned “art investment adviser” offered her a painting by living national artist Benedicto Cabrera, better known as “Bencab.”

The story was that the original owner of this piece—part of the artist’s famous (and pricey) “Sabel” series—needed to liquidate his assets pronto and, as such, was selling it for a relatively cheap P4 million.

Now that price would have raised red flags to anyone who’s familiar with Bencab’s “Sabel” line, but this doctor is, by her own words, not really a professional collector or investor, but rather someone who appreciates art and loves hanging them on her walls and just looking at them. Plus she had the word of the middleman who has been around local art circles offering apparently good investment advice to clients and friends. Until last January, that is.

The breast surgeon felt that P4 million was too steep a price to pay and successfully haggled the price down to P3 million, or P1 million “per head,” as the painting depicted three of Bencab’s coveted “Sabel” women. Again, a red flag, according to art experts. Why? Too cheap, apparently, since anything like this made by the master’s hands would go for anywhere between P10-15 million.

But buy it, the surgeon did, because she had always wanted a Bencab in her living room and because she trusted the art adviser, a former US-based investment banker and the son of a local newspaper columnist.

Not long after, the surgeon’s friend finds herself in a cocktail party with Bencab. She asks the surgeon to send her pictures of the newly acquired treasure and shows them to the master for verification. Alas, you can guess what happened next. The painting was pronounced a fake, and upon learning this, the surgeon’s heart sank along with her P3 million in hard-earned money.

And since the surgeon conveyed this information to her trusted middleman, this art investment adviser has promptly made himself scarce, according to our sources. We were told his most recent alibi was that he was also a victim of the scam since he brokered the sale in good faith not knowing the artwork was of doubtful provenance. But his expertise is what his clients pay him for, right?

In any case, the distressed breast surgeon just wants her money back, according to Biz Buzz sources. She has been appealing to his good nature to return her P3 million, but it remains to be seen whether this will happen to preclude a long and expensive legal battle.

Meanwhile, the age-old lesson for everyone stands: Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware. —Daxim L. Lucas

Seafarers under scrutiny

The Philippines is the second-largest supplier of certified seafarers in the international seaborne trade, providing one out of every four crew manning international maritime vessels. Pinoy seafarers sent home some $5.6 billion last year, about a fifth of total overseas Filipino remittances recorded in 2016.

This sector is at risk, however, as the quality of maritime education in the country is increasingly under scrutiny. A team from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), a European Union body mandated to audit the certification systems of states that supply officers and officers-in-charge (OICs) to the European fleet, was recently in town to evaluate maritime education and training in the Philippines as well as the system for certifying officers. Unknown to many, the Philippines is being audited more frequently than other countries as the high demand for Filipino seafarers focused global attention to the country’s capacity to supply seamen who meet the 1978 Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW), an international convention ratified by the Philippine Senate that contains a codebook of basic competencies for seafarers.

The government is now increasingly worried that the proliferation of substandard maritime schools that do not comply with the STCW would undermine efforts to upgrade maritime education. Based on a government briefer, a few maritime schools continue to defy even the courts, continuing to operate and accept students, including young boys from poor families in the provinces who dream of becoming seamen but are unaware of the risk of losing their money and time in enrolling in these institutions.

For many years, EMSA inspectors uncovered deficiencies in the country’s maritime education and training institutions, quality standards system, seafarers certification requirements for onboard training, implementation of management level courses and the equipment of maritime training institutions.

If the Philippines were to be stricken off the EU’s list of countries eligible to provide officers (and OICs) to European fleet, about 28,800 officers and OICs won’t be allowed to board European ships when their licenses end. Even non-European shipowners and operators may also stop hiring the Filipino seafarers unless they are made to belong to another flag state.

As such, the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) are now scrambling to plug loopholes in maritime education. Among other reforms, they established the Enhanced Support Level Program (ESLP), a ratings scheme that incorporates general education courses to facilitate the restructuring of maritime higher education. Designed as a transitional program, ESLP’s demand has since declined as maritime schools shifted to senior high school maritime technical vocational or the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) track.

The country is also racing against time to address deficiencies in maritime education. Due to concerns about extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the Philippines, there are those who believe that the EU—one of the vocal critics of President Duterte’s handling of his bloody war on drugs—has even more reason not to be too forgiving on these deficiencies. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla