Business NEWS

As a forever student of business and markets, I am titillated by emerging subjects, topics and issues that business is bracing up, including ways that could make doing business easier, particularly at this time when everybody is trying to survive from the slump due to the virus.

                The doctrine of “doing business” is generally applicable to foreign corporations desiring to transact business in the Philippines. The law states that such foreign corporations should obtain a license from the Securities and Exchange Commission (Sec. 140, Revised Corporation Code). Such license is required when the proposed transaction amounts to “doing business in the Philippines”.

After a most divisive election period, we are called to seek avenues for collaborative action between government and private sector, that we may refocus ourselves to getting our collective trust back for a new political administration. Our hope is that our new set of government leaders will practice good governance authentically as an anchor to restorative national unity in pursuit of our desired economic recovery.

A fiscal crisis is nothing new to the Philippine government.   Our Presidents faced shortages in revenues and mounting debts, albeit under different conditions. The problem of President Marcos was the civil unrest due to abuses of the martial law regime. President Cory inherited the instability brought about by corruption and loss of trust in the Marcos’ government. President Ramos faced high budgetary deficits due to years of blackouts and coup d’état. President Arroyo battled governance crisis from the anomalous ZTE deal and the Garci scandal. The pandemic eroded the gains from the fiscal reforms of the Duterte government. 

The Philippine Institute of Certified Accountants (or PICPA) is the professional organization of Certified Public Accountants (or CPAs) in the Philippines.  It has been awarded five times as Professional Regulation Commission’s most outstanding Accredited Professional Organization (APO) among other professional organizations.  PICPA was founded in November 1929 by a group of illustrious pioneers in the accounting profession. W. W. Larkin, holder of CPA Certificate No. 1, is PICPA’s first president.  PICPA was established primarily to promote and maintain high professional and ethical standards among accountants, advance the science of accounting, develop and improve accountancy education, encourage cordial relations among accountants, and protect the Certificate of Certified Public Accountant granted by the Republic of the Philippines.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) concluded its implementation of a project on “Strengthening Bipartite Relations at the National and Enterprise Levels” in partnership with its counterpart organization in Denmark, the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI). The project, which started in 2018, sought to institutionalize a functioning bipartite mechanism for joint policy positions at the national level and further enhance labor-management relations among unionized companies. A Leaders Forum (LF), consisting of the heads of the country’s largest labor federations and business organizations, was established for this purpose.

Aside from election chatter, the other buzz word in business, academic and government circles is inflation. It is a very serious cause of concern especially as it may derail the nascent economic recovery, post pandemic.

This month, there were two important piece of legislations that were enacted into laws that are directly pro consumers. First, is an Executive Order on the matter of ensuring ease of doing business with the government agencies in digital payments. Second is a Republic Act on the matter of ensuring consumers enjoy a safe, reliable and secure digital financial transactions and environment. These two pieces of legislations are major key indicators as the country pushes its National Strategy for Financial Inclusion or NSFI.

My apologies for the personal view of this piece. For one last time, I seek your indulgence as I share with you some of the minute details on the “Pagpupugay ng Bayan” (State Eulogy) for National Artist for Literature F. Sionil-Jose held late Wednesday afternoon sponsored by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the National Commission.

            In the classic textbook on Corporate Finance by Brealey, Myers and Allen, they introduce the topic of financial planning by saying that a camel looks like a horse created by a committee.  “If a firm made all its financial decision piecemeal, it would end up with a financial camel. Therefore, smart financial managers consider the overall effect of financing and investment decisions and ensure that they have the financial strategies in place to support the firm’s plans for future growth.”

I found it hard to believe that all the trees would shed off their leaves come wintertime.  I started getting depressed as the “leaves started drifting by my window.”   But, true to its name, the leaves in the Evergreen tree “clung to the vines.”  They brought life and hope to me and perhaps to everyone who was facing a bleak winter.

With the May 9, 2022, national and local elections now part of history, it is important to reflect on the evolution of election administration in the Philippines. Prior to 2010, the country struggled to conduct free and fair elections. Every three years, each new election cycle was marked by contested results, electoral violence, a slow vote count, and widespread distrust.

Part 3

Joint Memorandum Circular 1 Series of 2022 prescribed the mandatory guidelines in the availment of privileges of senior citizens and PWDS done through online commerce, telephone or sms. It took almost two (2) years for the implementing agencies from the time our consumer group raised the issue of the absence of the guidelines.

It’s not the consequence of the elections. Neither, it is the outcome.

                Can a corporation file a claim for moral damages? The expected layman’s answer to this question is no and understandably so. In the first place, a corporation is an artificial being created by operation of law (Section 2, Revised Corporation Code). Moreover, moral damages are those normally suffered by a natural person and they “include physical suffering, mental anguish, fright, serious anxiety, besmirched reputation, wounded feelings, moral shock, social humiliation, and similar injury” (Art. 2217, Civil Code). A corporation therefore has no reputation in the sense that an individual has and besides it is inherently impossible for a corporation to suffer mental anguish (National Power Corporation vs. Philipp Brothers Oceanic, Inc., G. R. No. 126204, Nov. 20, 2001).

Coaching is increasingly gaining recognition as an important intervention for leaders in the organization and now viewed as an investment in enhancing the leadership skills.