Landing safety risks to nag CdO airport

Five indicted Thai businessmen were issued arrest warrants last week in Legazpi City for flouting Philippine patent and food laws. Right away they cried that the court action would scare away foreign investors. Still, it brings the case back to court where it belongs, instead of being argued in the media.

The five Thais are Yoovidhya-family owners and execs of Red Bull energy drink. Their erstwhile local exclusive distributor, Energy Food & Drinks Inc. of the Chuas, had sued them for food mislabeling and breach of intellectual property rights. Also charged were Red Bull’s five new Filipino wholesalers.

At first the Legazpi city prosecutor dismissed the separate cases at the regional and metro trial courts. But in June, Justice Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar reversed the findings. Then came a barrage of media commentaries about the absurdity of a foreign patent owner being sued for patent violation.

Quietly the Chuas complained to the justice department about “contortions of facts,” allegedly orchestrated. They asked for their day in court to show that they abruptly were dumped as dealer in 2009 despite a contract till 2013. Too, that this was done after they had spent millions of pesos in brand promotion. And, that while they were negotiating, Red Bull was shipped to the Philippines in boxes on which were stamped the new marketers’ name over the Chuas’ EFDI.

The arrest warrants on their foes do not yet guarantee court victory for the Chuas. It only means they can now proceed to trial of the merits, not by media.

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If anything can go wrong ... it already did. Murphy’s Law marked last week’s bidding for navigational aids at the new Laguindingan international airport in Cagayan de Oro City. Takeoff and landing safety risks would hound the facility from hereon.

Construction of Laguindingan is 98-percent completed. It’s time to put in the Instrument Landing System (ILS) and the Doppler VHF Omnidirectional Range/Distance Measuring Equipment (DVOR/DME). The Korean Export-Import Bank is to lend the $13.293 million (P561 million). All fine and dandy.

Problem began when the Korean EximBank changed the bidding rules midstream, and the Department of Transportation and Communications relented. That was last March, when the Korea Airports Corp. announced plans to export its newborn nav-aids. Before that, American and European manufacturers already were preparing to bid.

Suddenly, however, the Korean EximBank imposed that only Korean bidders may join or subcontract, and only Korean products may be supplied.

It may be argued that it’s usual for foreign funders to favor their nationals. But the Laguindingan bidding is ridiculous. There is only one maker of nav-aids in Korea, the monopolistic Korea Airports Corp. KAC may be 32 years old, but its line is to build and operate airports. Only two years ago did it roll out a DVOR/DME, and a year ago an ILS. It launched last April a $180-million nav-aid sales target for the first year of export. The Philippines would be its first customer.

The silliness of Korean exclusivity shows even more in the ten-year minimum warrantee period for the nav-aids. The KAC would warrantee for ten years’ durability and reliability products that have been around for only one to two years.

A folly arose when three Korean bidders came forward. Two of them got product quotations, but with no details, from the same supplier: KAC. The third bragged to be a joint venture with, who else but, KAC. The first two protested KAC’s conflict of interest as their supplier and competitor. But the DOTC bidding managers saw nothing wrong with it.

Thus did the bidding proceed last week, amid ribbing of “Magkano ko riyan?” The punning isn’t so funny, though, given the airport’s safety risks.

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Meriting independent investigation is another tiff involving another Korean firm, this time at the Clark Freeport in Pampanga. Allegedly the Donggwang Clark Corp. shaved a mountainside on the northwest end of the sprawling former US Air Force base. This was to give way to a tourism complex that includes a 38-hole golf course and plush villas.

ADCL president Sonny Dobles alleges that at least 20,000 trees were felled. The free port manager Clark Development Corp. insists, however, that “only 120 non-endemic trees were cut, and no more will be cut.” Phooey, Dobles says, showing before and after photographs of the dense forest transformed into a barren slope. Residents of Mabalacat and Angeles cities reportedly have been complaining of mudflows into the river from the denuded highland.

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Meanwhile, Clark’s twin Subic Freeport in Zambales now looks like a ghost town. It has no permanent chairman, just an administrator who is doubling in both posts. Subic’s funds reportedly are drying up.

Allegedly during the past administration, Korean scammers wangled rights to large tracts of land, fenced these off for photo-ops, and sold shares to investors in the homeland. Yet none of the promised hotels, factories, or utilities ever rose.

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