French railway seeks an Orient stoppage in the Philippines
The French railway’s Orient Express is seeking a stop in the Philippines.
Now half-owned by the Accor hotel group, another French company, Orient Express has filed a petition seeking to stop the Uni-Orient travel agency, one of the largest in the Philippines, from using “Orient” under its global trademark.
The Intellectual Property Office has scheduled an initial hearing on Nov. 11. The hearing is classified first as an alternative dispute resolution, in the hope that the two parties would come to an amicable settlement.
Founded by the Techico family, Uni-Orient has been in uninterrupted business since 1976 and has grown to four branches, including Xiamen in China, while garnering scores of industry awards along the way.
Uni-Orient’s chairman, Stephen Techico, is incidentally also the honorary president of the Federation of FilipinoChinese Associations of the Philippines.
Accor, on the other hand, operates Techico the twin Fairmont and Raffles, Sofitel Philippine Plaza, Joy Nostalg in Ortigas, and Novotel in Cubao.
The French hotel group has also just teamed up with retired Ambassador Carlos Salinas to develop two serviced-apartment complexes in Makati under the Pullman and Novotel brands.
FT fails local authentication test
The Financial Times, which takes global pride on its “authority, integrity and accuracy,” has failed an authentication test from the Philippines.
FT Limited lost a P2.5-million claim for VAT-free refund because its London headquarters did not know how to comply with the authentication requirements for foreign public documents needed to support the VAT-refund claim of its Philippine backroom office, the Court of Tax Appeals ruled last week.
FT Limited maintains that its local electronic publishing unit, which incidentally grossed nearly P135 million sales in the questioned quarter serving the accounting and business support operations of FT Limited, is not only a nonresident corporation, but also, contrary to the position of the tax brigade, “not engaged in business in the Philippines.”
“Even the National Internal Revenue Code makes a distinction between a ‘resident foreign corporation’ and a ‘nonresident corporation’ insomuch so that registration or incorporation as a foreign corporation does not automatically prove that it is not engaged in business in the Philippines,” said Associate Justice Jean Marie Bacorro-Villena.
“Tax refunds are in the nature of tax exemptions which result in the loss of revenue for the government,” BacorroVillena said. “Expectedly, the burden of justifying the exemption rests on the person claiming it.”
Associate Justices Juanito Castañeda Jr. and Cielito Mindaro-Grulla concurred.
Gonzalez bags a Greenbelt deal
Investment banker Jaime Gonzalez and other undisclosed partners have acquired the First Midland office condominium, a low-rise, five-decade-old building along Gamboa St. in Legaspi Village, right across the leafy Washington Sycip park.
The initial chatter was that the listed Arthaland, where Gonzalez is vice chairman and president, was not part of this acquisition.
Gonzalez, who is married to a Yuchengco, declined to comment when reached, citing a confidentiality agreement.
Heard through the grapevine
A Duterte adviser with the rank of an undersecretary has been dropped kicking and screaming from a listed company, refusing to return the company-owned, brandnew Toyota Alphard that has become his daily driver for the honorific job.
E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com