BIZ BUZZ: TOUGH TASK FOR TELCO TOWER FIRMS

The Duterte administration released the guidelines for a pilot common tower policy, which will govern the construction of 50,000 new cell towers and help plug those frustrating mobile network gaps.

The early feedback from the telcos and tower builders was positive, even if the rules covered only the first 2,500 sites.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)— as the implementing agency— truly means well by coming up with these rules and encouraging the incumbent telcos PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom to allow the use of their existing infrastructure.

But looking at the list of locations— especially the more than 650 “hard to acquire locations” that were pitched by the telcos themselves— it’s clear the problem extends well beyond the DICT’s powers.

While telcos have long complained of issues in obtaining permits, the scale of the problem can be seen in those specific sites, many of which are in the telco’s own backyards.

One can take that literally since there are plenty of residential villages developed by Globe affiliate Ayala Land Inc. that were mentioned. But also consider commercial locations such as Ayala Triangle in Ayala’s sprawling malls in Quezon City that lack cell site coverage.

More than a few telco and government insiders told us that apart from village residents fearing radiation, permits from local government units are hard to come by due to corruption and greed. A P5,000 permit in one LGU can cost P3 million in another for a single site.

The DICT recognizes the problem and, more importantly, it acknowledges that it needs help. Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio

Jr. of the DICT told us that they had earlier requested an executive order from Malacañang to designate passive telco infrastructure as projects of national significance.

The proposed EO also calls for a mutliagency council, with the head of DICT and the Department of the Interior and Local Government as chair and vice chair, respectively. One of the key functions of the council is to streamline and standardize cell tower permit requirements and their fees. The sooner that gets implemented, the better. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS

Wine not?

Several years ago, Nonoy Quimbo asked a fraternity brother if he thought it made a business sense to sell wine in the Philippines.

The fraternity brother, who is also a prominent businessman, asked if Quimbo was crazy. But Nonoy had a dream. Why can’t the Philippines have its own wine?

Fast forward to today, Quimbo’s wine brand Novellino now has the biggest share in the wine market in the country of about 30 to 35 percent.

A lot has happened to Bel Mondo Italia Corp., the company behind the brand, in the past 20 years. From a small-scale business on a 300-square-meter space in Valenzuela City, the company now has a 1.3-hectare production facility in Laguna.

It produces millions of bottles a year (although Nonoy does not want to disclose the figures) at its future-proof plant.

At maximum capacity, it can make as much as 20 million bottles a year if the company goes on three shifts a day. But Quimbo said the company operated only on less than one shift in a day.

However, there is a lot of room to grow, which is an optimistic way of saying a lot of Filipinos still don’t drink wine.

Christopher Quimbo, company president and general manager, said that Filipinos drank an average of only 1/10th of a liter of wine in a year, compared to 40 liters a year for the French people.

This is why the company’s plan is not to convince consumers to transfer from one wine brand to another, but instead, to broaden the market.

“Our source of growth is converting nonwine drinkers into drinkers,” Nonoy said, as he noted the company’s 20-percent growth in sales volume last year, its biggest jump so far.

And as for the businessman who asked he was crazy to go into this business? Well, he’s doing quite well, too, although he is more into coffee than wine.

“Guess who that person is? He is a very prominent businessman. He is now the richest man of the Philippines,” Nonoy said. —ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL

Rice trading giant

Now that Congress has passed the rice tariffication law, which liberalizes the importation of rice, conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is just waiting for the implementing rules and regulations to be able to participate in rice trading.

SMC has identified a number of sites around the country with existing ports, where grain storage silos could be put up, according to company president Ramon S. Ang.

For SMC, the big motivation is “not to make money but to help consumers and to help farmers with a more stable pricing,” he said. As such, he said farmers could enjoy a more stable income while consumers would be assured of stable supply.

RSA plans to buy rice from local farmers as well as from producers in rice-producing nations like Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. The silos will be used to store and age palay. Mature palay, after all, will yield more rice once milled because it’s not as sticky as newly harvested grains.

For its part, SMC will benefit as well as the byproducts from rice milling can go to its feedmill and the broken rice can be used by its breweries for alcohol production.

And the tycoon is looking at a big capacity for this project, which means that speculative traders who used to induce artificial rice shortage to artificially jack up prices in the past will be less influential under the new regime. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA

Penalized

Integrated gaming resort operator Travellers International Hotel Group Inc. has been penalized with P153,000 due to its failure to hold its annual stockholders’ meeting in 2018. It is now making the necessary arrangements to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s directive to pay such penalty, Travellers told the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.

Such an annual meeting would have opened discussions about operations in 2017, a challenging phase in its history. To recall, that was when a lone gunman wreaked havoc in Resorts World Manila in Newport City, killing 30 people, including guests, hotel staff and himself.

These days, Travellers has put the issue behind it and is pursuing the expansion plans for Newport City while working on its new gaming resort in Pagcor Entertainment City. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA

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