Biz Buzz: In good graces

When he came to power in 2016, President Duterte took aim at a few tycoons whom he believed were, one way or the other, engaged in business practices which he found objectionable.

One such target was tobacco, alcohol and airline magnate Lu

cio Tan who, to avoid further riling the Chief Executive, promptly settled some P6 billion in overdue liabilities to the government accumulated over the years by Philippine Airlines.

What a difference a few months make. After that megapayment—and lending a Philippine Airlines plane (along with rival Cebu Pacific) to ferry home distressed Filipino workers from the Middle East—Tan is now in the good graces of the President, with no less than Mr. Duterte saying so himself.

And the President apparently means it, because he is slated to attend tomorrow, Tuesday, a big Philippine Airlines event to celebrate Tan’s 83rd birthday on that day itself, and the unveiling of its new Airbus aircraft (the latest of which, the new A350, was ferried home from the factory in Toulouse, France, yesterday).

Biz Buzz learned that to cement their friendship further, Tan even invited a close friend of Mr. Duterte—Davao-based businessman Samuel Uy— to serve on the board of the airline.

We’re told that on one trip to Davao, Tan invited Uy for a quick day trip to Manila. Uy hesitated, saying he had an appointment in Davao that evening. “No problem,” Tan supposedly replied. “You’ll be back in Davao by tonight.”

So Uy joined Tan on his private jet to Manila and, upon landing, was immediately whisked to the Philippine Airlines headquarters in Pasay City. He was led to the boardroom where he was supposedly welcomed by the airline’s corporate secretary, renowned lawyer Estelito Men

doza, and promptly introduced to the assembled board members as the firm’s new director. The rest, as they say, is history. Or so the jaw-dropping story goes.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it’s done. —DAXIM L. LUCAS

Business as usual

Talks about another loan scam to hit the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. refuse to die down de- spite denials. As the street tale goes, it’s not a loan scam strike 2 (after what that lady executive

Marivic Lopez earlier pulled off) but an alleged branch fraud. A manager of a certain branch allegedly turned rogue and fled with some P400 million worth of clients’ money.

Is Metrobank a victim of a smear campaign or is there any grain of truth on all these?

“I don’t know where these rumors are coming from. There is no P400-million branch fraud,” Metrobank head of investor relations Juan Placido

Mapa III clarified. “It’s business as usual here,” Mapa stressed.— DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA

School haircut

The Phinma group is pulling the plug on Career Academy Asia Inc. (CAA), a fledgling education venture that offered senior high school education with specialized academic programs under the K-to-12 framework.

In 2014, Phinma Education signed up two Singaporean schools to offer diploma programs in hospitality and multimedia/graphic design in CAA’s senior high school. For multimedia and graphic design, CAA tapped First Media Design School (FMDS) while School D’ Hospitality (SDH) signed up for the hospitality program.

Subject to Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval, the board of CAA voted to shorten its corporate term to March 31, 2019.

CAA, which catered to a higher-income segment, opened in 2016. The new school took up the fifth floor or Phinma Plaza in Rockwell, with its first cohort of 20 plus students enrolled in Grade 11.

“But with such a low number of enrollees despite more than a year of marketing, we felt this would be too challenging a market for us. So we decided not to accept another new cohort in 2017 and just graduate the students we had,” Phinma Education president

Chito Salazar told Biz Buzz. The existing students graduated this year, with a few of them continuing their studies locally to obtain the Advanced Diploma of the Singaporean schools.

“So to make a long story short, the challenges were such that we decided to focus instead on expanding our other school acquisitions,” Salazar said.

This coming school year 2018-2019, the target is to increase enrollment across its six

Crunch time

A decision on a private sector offer to upgrade and operate Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport is fast approaching.

We’re referring to Naia Consortium’s proposal, submitted in February and revised or tweaked rather significantly to meet the requirements of the Department of Transportation.

The review and negotiation period had apparently been ongoing for months and major issues that were revealed covered revenue sharing and the concession period, which was revised from 35 years down to a 12- to 15-year window.

The DOTr, after all, believes Naia should close downin about a decade and anewair gateway will presumably be ready by then.

In any case, we hear a decision is nearing on whether the coveted original proponent status will be awarded to Naia Consortium, whose seven members are all conglomerates.

The decision will be made by the Manila International Airport Authority, which is set to hold a board meeting this week.

Which way it will swing is anybody’s guess at this point. The DOTr had hinted that it might decide to undertake the improvements by itself.

Troubling signs for the consortium include a series of recent upgrades being done by Miaa. In March, Naia was named the most improved airport by Skytrax—a public relations boost for Miaa and DOTr.

The consortium’s offer, of course, involves less headaches for the government, at no added cost. Its technical partner is Changi Airports International.

Even with its downsized proposal (the DOTr rejected the idea of a parallel runway in Manila Bay), the consortium said it could increase Naia’s capacity to 65 million passengers yearly, up by half. It also wants to increase aircraft hourly takeoff and landing movements to 52, higher by about 30 percent. —MIGUELR. CAMUS

Ignoring PCC

Was there really no way to keep the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) from issuing a stop order against Uber Philippines back in April?

One can only speculate at this point. But it sure is interesting to imagine how different things might have been had an agreement been made between LTFRB and the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC).

PCC has been signing memoranda of agreement ( MOA) with various government agencies to help in implementing its competition mandate.

These strategic partnerships include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Recently, PCC has partnered with the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice. This begs the question, however. Why not the LTFRB?

It would have been another tactical move to partner up with LTFRB, especially given the ongoing competition case surrounding Grab’s regional acquisition of Uber.

This is not to say PCC has done nothing to reach out. It did, but apparently LTFRB has been pretty busy.

PCC Chair Arsenio Balisacan told Biz Buzz that current issues “might have derailed [their] responses to our calls.”

So what could have been a matter of cooperation became an issue of clashing mandates.

Back when the review of the deal was still on, PCC ordered Grab and Uber to continue working independently and separately until the review is finished, as one of several conditions.

While Uber agreed to extend its services despite earlier announcing its exit, the LTFRB slapped Uber with a cease-anddesist order, requiring the firm to stop its operations in April.

“What I’m saying is I guess if [it was] coordinated better, that wouldn’t have possibly have happened,” Balisacan said. —ROY STEPHENC. CANIVEL INQ

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