Biz Buzz: New PAL president

The board of Philippine Airlines (PAL) will meet today (July 29) with a very important agenda: the confirmation of a new president who will help steer the flag carrier as it soars to the future.

Biz Buzz learned from multiple sources that the next PAL president is Gilbert Santa Maria, a Yale-educated executive and former COO of Washington, DC-based BPO giant Ibex Global. He will succeed Jaime “Jimmy” Bautista who retired last month.

Santa Maria’s entry was reportedly the result of several months of professional search. He was said to have been handpicked by taipan Lucio Tan or “Kapitan” himself from a shortlist of three nominees vetted by daughter Vivienne, PAL’s current executive vice president, treasurer and chief administrative officer.

Santa Maria brings to PAL more than 30 years of executive management and leadership experience across multiple industries around the world. A quick search of his profile shows that he has a Master’s in Public and Private Management from the Yale University School of Management and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He was born and raised in Mindanao.

His entry comes at a critical time in PAL’s 78-year history as the airline continues to struggle amid rising costs and stiff competition. But more than just managing the airline’s dayto-day operations, Biz Buzz sources said Santa Maria’s main task would be to help fulfill Tan’s vision of making PAL an airline that all Filipinos could be proud of.

PAL’s changing of the guard reportedly stemmed from Kapitan’s growing frustration that the airline continued to be a loss-making enterprise despite billions of dollars he poured into the company. Insiders said Tan, who recently turned 85, wanted PAL’s turnaround to be his legacy project and wouldn’t mind starting over if that was what it would take to turn his vision into reality. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS

UCPB shakeout Banker Higinio Macadaeg Jr. has stepped down as president and chief executive officer of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB), a government-controlled bank, under puzzling circumstances.

A handwritten resignation letter addressed to President Duterte— one that seems hastily scribbled—was circulated to the media Friday morning. This was followed by a statement from the bank a few hours later confirming Macadaeg’s resignation due to “personal reasons.”

The resignation will take effect upon acceptance by Mr. Duterte, the bank said, adding an assurance to clients and stakeholders that “there are procedures in place to ensure an orderly transition and that the bank will continue to provide and deliver its services to the public.”

The common speculation is that there was a disagreement between Macadaeg and Finance Secretary Carlos

Dominguez III on the privatization of UCPB, which, unlike most of its peers, hasn’t been able to beef up capital due to the ownership issue in previous years. Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the coco levy funds (some of which were invested in UCPB) are public in nature, the future of UPCB is now up to the government, specifically to Mr. Duterte’s economic managers.

Even bank insiders were surprised to hear about the resignation, which was on the heels of talks about a pending proposal from a big conglomerate to buy the coco levy debt paper held by Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. If and when converted into equity in UCPB, these billions in pesos of debt paper will give the holder a controlling stake in the bank, resulting in the de facto privatization of the bank. It seems that the economic team has other ideas on how to privatize the bank. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA

PCSO blitzkrieg

Following President Duterte’s order to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to immediately shut down all outlets of lotto, small town lottery (STL) and other gaming schemes such as Peryahan ng Bayan due to “massive corruption,” some publicly listed companies will be affected. It remains to be seen whether this will be as severe as the “lightning” that struck Philweb Corp. in 2016, but it may cause Pacific Online Systems Corp. (LOTO) to rethink its business, which is mostly linked to the PCSO.

Pacific Online provides technical and market expertise for the distribution of lottery products in the country in partnership with the PCSO. Since 1995, it has been leasing to PCSO its online lottery systems for the Visayas and Mindanao regions. One subsidiary, Total Gaming Technologies Inc., also leases Keno lottery system and equipment to PCSO nationwide, while another unit, Lucky Circle Corp., operates PCSO lotto retail outlets in major malls nationwide.

Pacific Online’s equipment lease agreement with the PCSO is already set to expire after July 31, 2019. Prior to Mr. Duterte’s pronouncements against PCSO, Pacific Online was in discussions for the extension of this agreement. During the public bidding initiated in May 2019 by the PCSO for the procurement of a new online lottery system, both Pacific Online and Philippine Gaming Management Corp. (PGMC), a unit of publicly-listed Berjaya Philippines Inc., failed to fully comply with all of the bidding requirements. PGMC is also into the leasing of online lottery equipment and provision of software support.

Companies with shares in Pacific Online, specifically Premium Leisure Corp., which owns 50.7 percent, and its ultimate parent firm Belle Corp. will also have to bite the bullet. Abacore Capital Holdings Inc., meanwhile, owns 1.85 percent of Pacific Online. —DORIS DUMLAOABADILLA

Land use conundrum

Three years into his term, Mr. Duterte has yet to breathe life into the passage of the National Land Use Bill and, if Sen. Cyn

thia Villar is right, the measure may not be enacted anytime soon despite being a priority bill of the Chief Executive.

In an interview with reporters, the lawmaker—who received criticism for allegedly shelving the bill to protect the interests of her family’s mass housing and development business—said that no one in Congress would sponsor a bill that could sabotage relationships with local government units.

You see, land use is currently determined by local government officials and adopting the National Land Use Bill would mean stripping them of this power to do so. This would also mean repealing the local government code.

“Do you want the ire of all the mayors in the Philippines? No Congress will do that... I don’t want to do that. That’s their power. They’re even asking for more powers to be returned to the local government,” Villar said.

The measure continues to gather dust in Congress as politics continue to rule the legislative branch. The question now is, whether or not the allies of the President in Congress are enough to push for the passage of the National Land Use Bill.

Without it, the utilization of the country’s land resources remains unchecked and makes the country more vulnerable to natural disasters.

For a lot of civic groups, stopping the occurrence of disasters altogether is improbable, but the proper use of the country’s resources could mitigate its adverse effects. This, however, can only be done if policies are in place. —KARL R. OCAMPO

Outstanding coastal community

The municipality of Macrohon in Southern Leyte bested 75 other coastal municipalities in the recent national search of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources for the outstanding coastal community in the country.

The annual awarding ceremony was held in the picturesque island of Siquijor last week, where Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol conferred cash prizes to communities that showed exemplary efforts on coastal resource protection and conservation.

The local government unit of Leyte went home with P30 million, while the municipalities of Alaminos, Pangasinan, and Gigaquit, Surigao del Norte, received P18 million and P10 million, respectively, which are to be used for fisheries livelihood projects.

The winners were assessed based on the following criteria: absence of illegal fishing: observance of off-fishing season; declaration of marine protected areas; clean coastal waters, and effective mangrove protection and rehabilitation.

Video presentations from the three winners showed crystal-clear waters and healthy mangrove ecosystems teeming with life. Fisherfolk were also able to increase their catch and engage in other livelihood programs such as cultivating seaweed and manufacturing processed seafood.

“Agriculture is an assurance that the next generation will be able to survive. Our role as the people of this generation is to make sure that we preserve and conserve and prepare for the next generation, just as we expect our next generation to do the same in the future,” Piñol said in his speech.

This year is the third season of the annual competition under BFAR. Last year, the municipality of Laguindingan in Misamis Oriental bagged the grand prize.