Done deal

It’s official. Businessman Tonyboy Cojuangco has bought the Associated Broadcasting Corp. (ABC-5) from Edward Tan for P4.8 billion. The price though includes liabilities to suppliers as well as some real property.

According to highly placed sources, Cojuangco is taking over the network formally starting January next year. Over the next two to three months, Cojuangco will be busy deciding on matters like programming, hiring of key personnel, and the like.

Earlier, sources said ABC-5 under Cojuangco will not be pitted directly against leaders ABS-CBN and GMA 7. It seems though that Cojuangco and his boys are looking at competing against Lopez-owned Studio 23 for audience share.

The more, the merrier, so they say. With Tonyboy’s financial muscle, expect ABC 5 to give the others a hard time. After all, money talks.

Corporate Honesty Still The Best Policy

Everyone expected PLDT to announce about P7 billion in net income for the first half of the year 2003. However, the reverse happened. The company decided to provision and write off certain non-performing assets which shrunk its net income to just P3.1 billion. PLDT’s share price was expected to tumble. But today, PLDT’s share price has shot up and is nearing the P700 mark.

What Happened?

Definitely, the performance of Smart Communications is a major factor for the surge in the company’s share price. But over and above that, there seems to be truth to the age old adage that, "honesty is the best policy."

The move of PLDT management to honestly declare to its shareholders that they did have some non-performing or underperforming assets and to completely write off assets like Piltel even if it hurt the bottom line seems to be reaping benefits for the company.

It is obvious that foreign funds and investors are pumping money into PLDT not only because its performance is improving, but also because it is honest and transparent with its financials. In short, PLDT can be trusted not to sweep bad investments under the rug just for it to resurface sometime in the future.

Come to think of it, if you were to invest your hard-earned money on a company, you wouldn’t just want to put it in a company that is performing well, you’d want to put it in a company that is transparent and honest as well. Remember, Enron and Worldcom were doing "exceptionally well" for a time.

This may be a welcome sign for some Filipino companies who are still afraid of writing off their dead investments and hiding it under "creative accounting" methods. It may hit your bottom line for a time, but eventually, you will be rewarded for doing what is right.

Setting The Record Straight

The recent fuss created by some newspapers (not this one) over the projected toll rates of the new North Luzon Expressway may have created impressions that would be unfair to the project as well as to the Lopez-owned Manila North Tollways Corp.

There is no doubt that the project is vital and way overdue. Yet, there apparently is need for many in society to better understand the promise this project will deliver. To date, work on the new North Luzon Expressway project is more 25 percent complete. The new tollway is expected to be fully operational by the latter half of 2004. Once completed, the new NLE will be the only toll road in the Philippines that completely meets international safety standards.

This world-class tollway, upon completion, will feature 460 lane-kms. of re-paved and re-built toll roads, 14 new and refurbished interchanges, 24 rehabilitated bridges, 31 rehabilitated overpasses, brand new flyovers at Dau and Novaliches, an upgraded EDSA-Novaliches service road, an improved NLE ramp at the Balintawak interchange, pedestrian overpasses to prevent pedestrian traffic from mixing with vehicular traffic on NLE, and improved drainage system along the NLE southbound section.

The NLE will also deliver on the promise of efficient toll collection system and effective traffic and safety management. Toll plazas will be equipped with dedicated and/or mixed electronic toll collection systems to improve customer convenience and throughput levels at the toll plaza.

The newly established Operations and Maintenance Center (OMC), will be located in Balintawak area, and will serve as the nerve center and the endpoint of all information coming from the NLE. It will be equipped with a modern communication network that features a fiber optic backbone, an operator’s radio system and telephone system that allow for efficient and reliable communication, closed circuit TV camera network to monitor critical and high-traffic zones 24 hours a day for easy deployment of emergency services, and emergency call boxes which are installed no more than two kilometers apart that will allow motorists to request for assistance.

The Lopez group which has secured the financial backing of international lenders is spearheading this $371-million modernization project. Without the initiative of the private sector to invest in such projects, the government alone would be unable to cover the expenses that would at least rehabilitate the existing expressway, much less expand and modernize the carriageway to accommodate the increase in motorist traffic.

With a world-class tollway, we can expect that toll fees will be adjusted significantly. However, like all properly run toll roads, only users pay for the cost of the NLE’s maintenance and operation. Fair enough.

ERC Wants More Funds

Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chairman Manuel Sanchez, who assumed his post in April of this year, is proving his dynamic leadership in the agency which used to be perceived as an adjunct of the Department of Energy.

Sanchez has time and again asserted the independence of the ERC, a regulatory body performing a quasi-judicial, quasi-legislative, and administration function in the electric industry.

The ERC was created in 2001 through Republic Act no. 9636, otherwise known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) which abolished the Energy Regulatory Board (ERB).

Sanchez, who was formerly congressman of Rizal’s first district, is batting for an increase in the ERC budget in 2004 to enable the agency to perform its tasks with greater efficiency. Considering the giants in the power industry that the ERC has to regulate, Sanchez believes that adequate funding as well as fiscal autonomy for ERC is imperative.

Sanchez likewise believes that the appointment of former Napocor president Jesus Alcordo as one of the ERC commissioners replacing Mary Ann Colayco will augur well for the agency. Alcordo by the way spent 40 years in private business.

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