Highway robbery

And all along I thought that my P800 homeowners association monthly fee was exhorbitant.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that the Rockwell Place in Makati was charging its unit owners as much as P20,000 a month for a three-bedroom unit.

Effective last Jan. 1, the board of trustees of the Rockwell Residential Towers Condominium Corp. increased the dues by P10.40 per square meter. And if the increased dues cannot still sustain an increase in Meralco rates above the budgeted P5 per kilowatthour, another round of increase can be expected within the year.

According to company president Vicente Paterno, actual expenses in 2002 were P5.30 per square meter per month more than projected. The shortfall, he said, was due mainly to the increase in electricity rates. Other factors taken into consideration were the projected hike in water rates and the minimum wage.

Many Rockwell residents feel that the increase in condominium dues is unwarranted. Even the well-off residents who have made Rockwell their home are now feeling the pinch and a number of them have organized a signature campaign to protest the increase.

It is no wonder then that some are no longer paying their dues or are paying under protest. In fact, the situation has become so bad that most of these unit owners are contemplating on leasing out their units and just renting apartments somewhere in Makati. After all, if you sum up the Rockwell dues, taxes, insurance and other expenses, these would already approximate the cost of renting a decent apartment.

Many would be tempted to say: If you can afford to pay P22 million for a three-bedroom unit at Rockwell Place, what the hell are you complaining about?

That is not the point. This is highway robbery for crying out loud.

The moral lesson, therefore, of this story is that before you buy your own place, check out the hidden charges. Caveat emptor, buyers beware.

Back in the saddle

When I chanced upon RFM Corp. president Joey Concepcion during the inauguration of his group’s newest project, the Fairway Towers at the Bonifacio Global City, the first thing that entered my mind was to ask him whatever happened to the company’s business model review.

I had to ask him, of course, whatever happened to plans to acquire ABC-5. Joey smiled and said the talks with the station owners did not progress. Sources say price was a major issue.

Next question: Why did his father, Joecon decide to take an active role in managing the group’s poultry business, which was recently spun-off?

According to Joey, all his father wanted was to make the country’s chicken industry viable, as his contribution to the economic agenda of President Arroyo.

Joecon’s entry also came at a time when plans to sell most of Swift Food’s poultry assets in Metro Manila and Luzon to San Miguel Corp. fizzled out. A little bird told me that SMC still has its hands full following the acquisition of Purefoods Corp. and therefore had to postpone plans of acquiring SFI’s facilities.

Had the sale pushed through, Swift would have concentrated its chicken business in Cagayan de Oro, Isabela, and other areas very near corn supply.

So now that plans of acquiring a television station have been shelved and with the spin-off of SFI’s poultry division, what is to become of RFM?

Joey says everything is going as planned as far as making RFM a force to reckon with in the branded food and beverage business. The spin-off of Swift’s poultry division was, according to him, a way of separating the commodity from the branded foods business.

Like San Miguel, RFM wants to be not just a Philippine food and beverage company but a regional player. Already, RFM’s branded products are being exported to several countries. Gone are the buying binge days of RFM. Today, the company wants to focus on its three brands: Swift’s (processed meat), Selecta, and the noodle business (in partnership with Uni-President). After all, with the current economic and financial crisis, the best way to survive is to concentrate on what one does best.

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