Buzzing with excitement

The local stock market is all agog with talks that a fast growing player in the health science sector is soon going public.

The player is Philab Industries, a pioneer in the Philippine health science sector with six decades of experience in the field. The company has been growing exponentially due mainly to its foray into various areas like health test kits, construction of science and medical facilities, and into the education sector and soon, genomics.

Businessman Hector Thomas Navasero is the owner of Philab and he has acquired a 67 percent stake in holding company Alterra Capital Partners for P362.32 million. Alterra’s new management is proposing to change the company’s name to Philab Holding Corp. during its annual general meeting on Oct. 20.

Industry observers expect Philab Industries would be folded into the new holding company.

Should this happen, it will allow the public a more direct way of taking promising positions in the Philippine healthcare and health sciences industry through the stock market.

According to media reports, Philab has a sales pipeline of about P3.2 billion worth of contracts. Management expects the company to grow significantly in the next three to five years.

Last July, Philab broke ground to build a P1.6 billion structure that will house the UP National Institute of Health. It also bagged a Department of Education contract to provide more than 34,000 elementary schools with math and science teaching kits.

The company also delivered one million dengue self-test kits to the Department of Health. The portable test kits will help DOH rural health unit personnel screen potential dengue patients before sending them to town hospitals.

Philab produces the dengue test kits under its trademark LABiT. Plans are afoot to produce and market other new self-test kits, including Zika test kits, cardio test kits and even test kits for tumors.

The company is also bringing in the most advanced genome sequencing facility into the country. The Illumina HiSeq X-Ten, is touted to be the most modern of its kind and rated to provide whole genome sequences that can then help identify ailments and diseases one may be predisposed to, thus, providing more reliable guidance on necessary lifestyle adjustments and even preventive medication.

It is said that Navasero’s investment in the genomics facility is part of his plan to open Asia’s first business-to-consumer genomics facility by middle of next year, with a market potential of four billion people.

Judases in our midst

In its first meeting under the Duterte administration, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board confirmed approval of nine projects with an estimated total cost of P171 billion.

Included in the nine are important infrastructure projects such as the Metro Manila Flood Management Project Phase I, the Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit – EDSA, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) PPP Project, and the Maritime Safety Capability Improvement Project of the Philippine Coast Guard.

So far, so good. The present administration is able to accomplish what the previous Aquino leadership has not, and that is fast track vital important infrastructure projects.

But observers have warned the NEDA Board and the NEDA Cabinet-level ICC not to go for speed at the expense of thoroughness.

This early, certain groups are pushing for the approval of the proposed P9.13-billion Cebu International Port project which is being pushed with much vigor by Cebu Port Authority general manager Edmund Tan. The project has already gotten the green light from the NEDA ICC technical board.

A 12-hectare site in Barangay Tayud, Consolacion is being eyed as the site for the new international container port, whose funding would come from Korean official development assistance (ODA) loans, and partly from the Philippine government.

Critics of this project argue that tapping ODA will be tapped to finance the undertaking is not cause for celebration, given that ODA is not free and usually comes with strings attached. Records show that about 98 percent of Korea Exim Bank’s ODA loans are tied to concessions.

Take a look at the Busuanga Airport Development Project which will be financed primarily by an ODA loan from Korea Eximbank. It was solely carried out by South Korean contractors—from the airport design down to construction, which means a large part of the loan went out of this country and went back to Korea.

They say it was former Transportation secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya and Cebu Port Authority’s Tan who were pushing for such financing scheme for the project, which was kept off the radar and away from the knowledge of other foreign and domestic contractors who might offer a better deal. There was no public bidding, nor was there a Swiss challenge. Even Cebuanos were kept in the dark.

The Abaya-Tan tandem procured the assistance of South Korean consultants who, in turn, proposed financing via an ODA loan with low interest repayment rate. Project feasibility studies and construction will be handled by Seoul-based Dy Engineering.

Filipino workers would not benefit from this project which would cost taxpayers $191.5 million if the port is built in Consolacion, Cebu, or $206.07 million if Mandaue City is tapped as port site.

Korea Eximbank would provide an interest bearing loan that would cover 80 percent of the project cost that the Philippine government would guarantee to pay (aren’t government guarantees prohibited?) while 20 percent percent of project funding would be paid by the Filipino people.

Actual construction will eat up the bulk of project cost, with additional cost of $6 million for Korean consultants and $3 million for project management. Almost every cent of the project expenditure, plus more since the loan will be paid with interest, flows back to Seoul.

Are there Judases in our midst who have sold their countrymen for 30 pieces of silver?

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