BIZ BUZZ: ILLEGAL LAND CONVERSION

Seven agricultural areas along the Pulilan bypass road in Bulacan were found by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) being illegally converted into a residential or industrial area.

According to Abdullah Linog, agrarian reform program officer in Bulacan, areas ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 square meters were already dumped with soil and gravel, even when no one has applied to convert the lands in Pulilan.

The DAR is not taking the matters lightly as this could mean “a direct insult to the agency,” considering that DAR officials and personnel pass by the area daily.

“We are now gathering relevant information for possible filing of appropriate cases if we find certain irregularities in this undertaking,” Linog said.

While land conversion is allowed under the law, Linog noted that appropriate guidelines must be followed—including securing an application from the DAR.

We hope this would start a crackdown on illegal land conversions in the country. We believe this practice has remained unchecked. Don’t you think so?

AI scoring

Bankers have long used intuition—in combination with credit history, collateral and other financial information—in sifting through loan applicants. But in this day and age when speed matters much more, especially as fintech firms eat up more of traditional lenders’ space, traditional credit scoring systems are being challenged.

Citing its financial inclusion advocacy, Aboitiz-led Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank)—which deems itself a bank and a technology firm rolled into one—has started to harness machine learning (ML)and artificial intelligence (AI)based scoring models to determine eligible loan applicants.

Using these new scoring models, the bank has been able to include other means of determining the risk levels of loan applicants, thus making it possible for them to qualify when compared to just looking at traditional factors. The AIand ML-based scoring models analyze patterns of customer behavior by using alternative data points, such as geographical metadata, socio, macroeconomic and other publicly available data from the government.

“We are walking the talk. Everyone talks about financial inclusion but when it comes down to assessing eligibility, the measures used are the traditional ones—thereby still excluding the same people we wish to include,” said Manuel Santiago, chief mass market and financial inclusion executive at UnionBank.

Aside from loans offered by the parent bank, the group is making business loans available in the SeekCap Marketplace, an online lending marketplace that allows Filipino business owners to easily and speedily access credit 24/7. The marketplace is powered by UBX, the fintech spinoff of UnionBank.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, UnionBank has encouraged aspiring data scientists to elevate the profession with the launch of its own Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Institute, aimed at producing and nurturing big data professionals to help usher in innovations. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA

Phoenix in the black

Betting on a business prospect is not always a high-risk venture. In the case of Phoenix Petroleum, it now looks like its decision to venture into liquefied petroleum gas was a strategic and well planned one that’s now paying off during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Seeing untapped potential in what competitors consider a mature market, the country’s third-largest petroleum player acquired the LPG business of Petronas Energy Philippines Inc. in 2017.

The key move for Phoenix was immediately fortifying its operations through a strategic supply partnership with Brunei-based Hengyi Industries.

From Petronas’ traditional stronghold in Visayas and Mindanao, Phoenix expanded into Luzon and Metro Manila with a rebranding to Phoenix Super LPG, and the firm’s positive prospects for LPG extended into other underserved markets in the region with the establishment of Phoenix Gas Vietnam LLC.

The reckoning came during the pandemic, which began in the second quarter of last year. With LPG considered an essential item, being the staple cooking fuel of middle income Filipino families, Phoenix was able to survive and thrive through the economic downturn that followed.

By the end of 2020, Phoenix reported domestic LPG volume growth of 32 percent year-onyear and triple volume growth for its overseas markets. These numbers boosted the business, helping it attain a P158-million net income in the last quarter and a P63-million total net income for the whole year, effectively allowing Phoenix to end the pandemic year in the black.

Phoenix definitely has reasons to be bullish as the latest data show a slow but sure growth in its market share in the local LPG industry. From a 4.49 percent market share upon acquisition in 2017, it crept up to 4.84 percent in 2018 and 5.61 percent in 2019. And despite the ongoing pandemic, Phoenix cornered 6.87 percent of the LPG market by the third quarter of 2020.

Phoenix even launched an innovation of LPG canisters to entice more lower-income consumers to finally switch to safer, more reliable and more economical cooking fuel than firewood and charcoal.

It also caters to consumers who prefer single-use butane canisters for domestic use. So where its other competitors exited the LPG business, Phoenix saw opportunity and proved them wrong. —DAXIM L. LUCAS

A rock and a hard place

Employees at the Department of Agriculture (DA) found themselves between a rock and a hard place after Agriculture Secretary William Dar ordered a part of the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) building be converted into a quarantine facility.

According to the memorandum order, Quezon City hospitals and isolation areas are now fully occupied, prompting the agriculture chief to step up— but there have been red flags.

Word on the street is that employees who are considered “no work, no pay” are sought to carry the burden of cleaning the facilities and assisting the COVID-19 patients by bringing them food and buying their respective medicines.

Despite the risks, the employees were also not given personal protective equipment or supplies to properly sanitize the area. They were also not given any kind of training or hazard pay.

What’s worse is that even with the pending approval of the Department of Health to turn the area into a facility, there are already patients who are staying in the building.

DA workers are worried that they would be left to fend for themselves once the virus spreads in the office, as is the case when some DA employees contracted COVID-19.

While the DA is taking the initiative as a huge step to help COVID-19 patients, employees are urging the agency to secure the necessary equipment to ensure that the facility will not result in an outbreak.

The new facility, if mishandled, may result in bigger problems for the city. INQ