A big gamble in Subic

By Fel V. Maragay After so much wrangling and fault-finding, the long-overdue plan to modernize the Subic Bay port and make it at par with international standards is about to take a leap from blueprint to implementation stage. Since the Americans left the former naval facility in Zambales with the expiration of the bases treaty [...]

Asean can play leadership role in Asia

For ASEAN Secretary-General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, a major revelation about the new reality of Asia’s global role and “shift of weight from West to East” came in October 2008, when Western and Asian leaders met in China’s Great Hall of the People during the Asia-Europe Meeting in Beijing. Speaking at an international media conference held [...]

Will the Resa law affect the brokers only?… Think again!

After my article in this column and my other article in another paper, after discussions in several forums and conferences, after meeting with several heads of sales organizations of different developers, sales agents have now realized that this so-called RESA law is no longer a joke. For the longest time, people thought that selling real [...]

Ayala moves into Boomtown

Indeed, it is such a delight to receive news that listed real-estate company Ayala Land Inc., one of the country’s biggest real-estate developers, is now targetting Subic Bay for expansion. The company, a news report indicates, proposes to build a P3-billion mixed-use development in the former Subic US naval base reportedly as part of its [...]

Rape of the Superhighway

The supposed “rationalization” currently being proposed by the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) on the rules that would govern the placement, installation and location of outdoor advertising, more popularly known as billboards, along the 92-kilometer stretch of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) is a fitting prelude to the greatest crime against nature that could ever happen [...]

Will the RESA law affect the brokers only? Think again…

Property buyers will be happy to know that our government has been taking serious steps to provide protection for them, and thus encouraging them to invest more in Philippine real estate. There is already the Presidential decree 957 (Subdivision and Condominium Buyers Protection decree) and the Republic Act 6552 (more popularly known as the Maceda law, which is about Protection of Buyers of Real Estate on Installment Payment).

Enrile’s power bills

One way Congress can help ailing industries in the provinces, particularly in an economic downturn, is by helping lower their production cost through cheaper electricity. And this is precisely what Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile had in mind in filing Senate Bill 3147 or the Uniform Franchise Tax Act, and Senate Bill 3148 or the Electricity Rate Reduction Act.

What’s next for Mariano Tanenglian?

Business circles are now rife with speculative talk about the cause and true nature of the feud between wealthy Chinese-Filipino businessman Lucio Tan and one of his brothers, Mariano Chua Tanenglian. And one cannot help but wonder if this feud is actually the beginning of the end of the Tan family’s mighty business empire.

To and from Cojuangco town

In terms of business focus, it seems amiss for Cojuangco-chaired San Miguel Corp. (SMC) to be interested in a sizable stake in the proposed 88-km toll road that will extend the North Luzon Expressway from Mabalacat, Pampanga, all the way to La Union, coursing through the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway. But then, other than the potential revenues from the project, on the political front, it also makes sense for SMC chairman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. to favor the tollway investment. After all, it improves access to and from his own bailiwick of Tarlac, and is expected to also pass his son Mark’s legislative district in Pangasinan.

The monster killer called IFRIC 15

For the past few months, a lot of developers who knew about IFRIC 15, a new accounting reporting system scheduled to be implemented on January 1, 2009, with a retroactive application, were really worried. I was also very surprised to learn that very few developers have even heard of this issue.

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