October 17, 2004

The Philippine STAR, Opinion Page

Businessmen Are Here To Stay

By Babe Romualdez

With the perception that the United States is behind the exposé of several generals involved in corruption — rumors of another coup have started to circulate incessantly.  What compounded these rumors is the fact that the right-wing Republican-leaning Heritage Foundation has declared GMA as the weakest leader in Asia.  This, of course, added fire to the destabilization rumor.  Despite all of these rumors, there are still a good number of businessmen who have decided to have the "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" attitude.  

Of course, the big guys like Danding Cojuangco, Kapitan Lucio Tan, Henry Sy and John Gokongwei continue to expand their investments in the country.  That is, of course, because they are big enough to do so.  

In San Miguel Corp.—under the stewardship of Danding Cojuangco and Ramon Ang—the Philippines' largest firm is planning to invest $15-billion for a program that will give farmers the chance to modernize and sell all their products to San Miguel.  El Kapitan is expanding Philippine Air Lines' fleet to 13 more aircraft.  Air Philippines earlier opened new flights to Guangzho and Chengdu in China. Henry Sy continues to build more malls all over the country and his realty firm is planning some projects aimed at the middle-income market in various sites in Ternate.

But the more important people are the small and medium businessmen who take risks because they continue to have faith in the country.  These are the businesses that propel the economy.  

A former classmate of mine at the Ateneo, Gabby Paredes, for instance, who is presently the CEO of a telecom firm, has decided to form a group and do a leverage buy-out of companies.  He feels that the opportunity is now.  Gabby has lived abroad for many years and has decided to dig in his heels and stay here for better or for worse.  

One very exciting project that has emerged comes from the California-based BioDiesel Corp.  They have come to the country to look into the possibility of entering into joint ventures in Asia and the Philippines.  In fact, they have already met with the Chairman of Petron, Nick Alcantara.  The firm is looking for a financially strong local partner with a solid business reputation. 

From what I hear, George Yang of the MacDonald's fame is seriously looking into this joint-venture partnership.  This particular project will provide a cleaner and renewable alternative source of fuel.  It will create more jobs and revive the ailing coco industry.  It also means cleaner air because biodiesel can reduce the toxic emission levels of diesel exhaust. 

But more important, it will save the country precious dollars.  There are a lot of people who are now taking interest in this project.  As a matter of fact, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is willing to provide BioDiesel development funds for plants around the country.  We should have more of these profitable investments that have a very high social impact for both the environment and the creation of more jobs.

Art Ng, another enterprising third-generation Chinese Filipino businessman, is quietly and effectively making a lot of money with his high-tech ventures.  And mind you, creative people like him are doing things for the government to help a lot of people in education and I.T. services without much fanfare.  

His company, Transpacific Broadcast Group Inc. (TBGI) is bringing Internet technology to various schools in small communities in the hinterlands.  TBGI is exposing kids to global best practices procedures in various industries that will arm them for a digital economy.  Art believes that nothing in this country is more important than investing in the youth.  Thus, he is planting the seeds for a future generation of well-educated and talented people by giving them access to Internet technology. 

Venecia Bar and Nuvo Restaurant owner Louie Ysmael has decided to adopt the "The hell, do I care about politics!" attitude.  He feels confident enough to expand his bar and resto-grill operations in Metro Manila.  Louie Y was known as the "Disco King" during the 70s and 80s. 

Our friend and idol Ramon Jacinto of the famous R] and the Riots band continues to have faith in the country despite some business setbacks he had in the 90s.  Ramon, who was in exile for many years, continues to have faith in the country.  These are the kind of people we need in this country who continue to take the risks and generate jobs.  These businessmen have decided to stay come hell or high water. 

On the other hand, there are those so-called businessmen who just keep on barking and who viciously criticized GMA before the elections, but now bow to her after her victory.  They have neither offered anything tangible nor substantial to help the country.  These are the people who rant, rave and whine.  Worse of all, they stash their hidden wealth abroad. 

These are the fence-sitters who don't put their money where their mouths are.  The dictum, "Money is a coward" applies to them because of their No-Action-Talk-Only stand.  They are gutless people who have no business doing business in this country.  To add insult to injury, they pontificate on good governance when they themselves are involved in shenanigans.

There are, of course, politicians who enter politics to do business.  Soon, this species will disappear like the large crocodiles of the Amazon.  The growing spread of global transparency will soon see them rooted out of government like bad crocodile eggs.

They will become irrelevant and useless when the educated citizens demand better performance, integrity and accountability from their elected and appointed officials.  In the end, we have less politicians involved in business and more of the real businessmen who are prepared to take the risks.  As the saying goes—politicians come and go, businessmen are here to stay.

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Email: babeseyeview@hotmail.com

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