Business Matters
False hopes?
By David L. BalangueMay 13 will come and go. Another set of elections will be completed and the promises we heard during the preelection period will be forgotten, to be heard once more come the 2016 elections.
May 13 will come and go. Another set of elections will be completed and the promises we heard during the preelection period will be forgotten, to be heard once more come the 2016 elections.
I have participated in many commencement exercises, and presided over a number of them. None was more memorable or more moving than the graduation I attended three weeks ago at the Apu Palumgawan Cultural Education Center (APC) in Bendum, Bukidnon.
Last week, on April 17, the US Supreme Court, through Chief Justice John Roberts, issued a unanimous decision in the case of Kiobel et al. v. Royal Dutch Petroleum et al. (No. 10-1491). Although dealing with a case brought by Nigerians invoking an American statute, the US decision is of interest to us Filipinos because it could impact cases, like those involving Marcos human rights violations, that are brought in the United States by Filipinos for acts committed, not in the United States, but in the Philippines.
The next three years, from 2013 to 2016, are critical years for the Philippines. They represent the last three years of the Aquino administration—the second half of the six-year journey to completed reforms and better governance. Coming off a first half that saw the country growing from strength to strength and gaining in visibility on the global stage, the second half will bring greater attention, higher expectations, and more pressure to deliver results. It will be equally important to think about institutionalizing reforms so they become irreversible. The reforms must outlast the term of the present administration. These will be its greatest legacy. We all have a role to play in creating this legacy.
Today’s Business Matters column should have been written by Prof. Felipe “Fil” Alfonso. Unfortunately, Fil passed away last April 5, a week before he was to turn 76. His passing marks a loss to the business community, especially because of his passionate commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR), or what many refer to as the business of doing good.
This Latin interrogative sentence became memorable as the title of a Hollywood film that won multiple Oscar awards, including one for Peter Ustinov playing the role of the Roman Emperor Nero. The spectacle and the love story perhaps distract from the context and the import of the question.
“Reinvent yourself!” That’s the title of one issue of the Alumni Magazine of one of the best business schools in the world, the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. I was fortunate to have been closely associated with the professors of this institution which, year in and year out, appears among the top 5-10 business schools in the world in listings of The Economist, Financial Times, Bloomberg and other business publications.
I had originally intended to compose a synopsis of a speech I delivered last Feb. 26 at the Second Annual Arangkada Forum of the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce, hoping thereby to make my life easier. However, the Management Association of the Philippines featured virtually the entire speech in the March 4 issue of the Inquirer, and while I felt honored, I also realized that my lazy ploy had been thwarted.
The latest Sabah incident recalls again how the countries of Southeast Asia took shape from the territorial fragments cut up by foreign colonial powers. The task of ensuring the fit of the jigsaw pieces they inherited still occupies national governments.
It’s one of the key measures of our competitiveness and a report titled “The Ease of Doing Business,” prepared by the International Finance Corp. (IFC, a part of the World Bank Group), measures precisely that for the last 10 years. The report tracks the ease of doing business across 10 important processes or transactions which any business must undertake with a government agency or agencies. The key measures are the number of steps, the amount of time (measured in days), and the cost of going through these transactions. In some cases, it simply measures the presence or absence of a mechanism that offers investors some protection or access to information.
The National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), which pioneered the people’s involvement in the electoral exercises of 1984 and 1986 (when President Ferdinand Marcos agreed to call a snap election), is back.
As a young lawyer, I used to complain to my mentor, Allison J. Gibbs, that often tax laws defy common sense. He would reply that tax laws and their implementation are simply exactions of the state to which logic or common sense take a back seat.
