From bad to worse

Things are getting worse at BayanTel.

Two top officials have just been axed allegedly in connection with the disappearance from the records of a P70-million liability owed by a company in terms of unpaid leased line charges.

Melvin Tomas, director of BayanTel’s risk management group, and Mon Garcia, senior manager of the billing and collection division, reportedly could not explain the missing account owed by an independent reseller or that leases a line from BayanTel and then makes lots of money from it by reselling services (such as VoIP or voice over the Internet Protocol).

By the way, BayanTel’s chief financial officer Gary Olivar has just resigned although he did for personal reasons which he would rather not discuss with me. I suspect this was done out of frustration over the way things are turning for the company.

The Lopez-owned telecommunications company is currently working on a debt restructuring program involving $477 million in loans and is now under court receivership after the Pasig RTC granted the petition of Bank of New York which sought the rehabilitation of the company on behalf of creditors holding at least 25 percent of BayanTel’s total liabilities.

According to sources, the rehabilitation court is now in the process of looking at the different recommendations, including those coming from the creditors and BayanTel management, for the purpose of coming up with a final restructuring program.

Remigio Noval, the court-appointed BayanTel receiver, has just submitted his proposed rehabilitation plan which was opposed by both the creditors and BayanTel.

The creditors, meanwhile, are proposing the conversion of the debts to equity which if approved would result in them owning majority of BayanTel. Company management and the receiver are reportedly proposing that a smaller share of total equity be given to the creditors.

On Commercial Overloading

Butch Raquel, GMA Network’s corporate communications head, wrote us recently, in reaction to a Hidden Agenda item which according to him clearly pertained to them and which mentioned about a TV network which after leaving the fold of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas has engaged in advertising overloading.

Here are excerpts from his letter:

"Since the network left the KBP last Sept. 2003, GMA’s advertising load generally experienced a drop. From Sept. 2003 to May 2004, GMA’s total day average loading per hour is 13 minutes, down eight percent from its average of 14.2 minutes for the period Jan. to Aug. 2003 when GMA was still a member of KBP. This is the result of the company’s serious effort to regulate its commercial loading so that its programming will not suffer.

She must have referred to a few incidences when GMA’s top rating noontime program Eat Bulaga which is also a block timer posted commercial loads that reached 30 minutes per hour on only two occasions. GMA’s election coverage Eleksyong 2004 also posted 19.25 minutes on June 10 (12 to 12:39 p.m.). But these extraordinary incidences do not describe our total day average loading.

Our main competitor, she would know if she herself made the research, also registered substantial commerial overloads on certain dates this year alone. In fact, ABS-CBN registered a total overload of 92 hours in excess of the ‘18-minute rule’ per hour based on Nielsen data for March alone. Another KBP member TV station, RPN-9, overloaded in commercials on certain days this year. By the way, the KBP and Adboard chairman Cerge Remonde is also RPN’s chairman.

Thus, to accuse GMA of taking advantage of its withdrawal from the KBP to overload in commercials is simply unfair. To doubt the accuracy of our reported advertising revenues is even worse. GMA Network will never damage the industry it has helped grow through the years. Now will it allow other TV networks to abuse the industry as well."

Well said, Mr. Raquel. But one of the reasons why GMA Network left KBP is because GMA does not agree with the 18-minute advertising load per hour limit and wanted the cap lifted. So why do you have to deny overloading? You yourself mentioned in your letter the need to regulate commercial loading so that programming will not suffer. Just curious.

Quiz Bee Needs Our Support

The National Super Quiz Bee, the longest running and most respected academic competition in the country, marks its 25th year, amidst dark clouds cast over its future.

There are no cash prizes in the Quiz Bee because the QB Foundation believes that money is not a good motivation for self-achievement. The usual prizes are a trophy, medals, set of encyclopedia, a personal computer or a scholarship grant for each of the grand final winners.

Quiz Bee, a truly ‘gawang Pinoy’ term, was made known to the world thru the launching of the 1st World Quiz Bee when no less than mega-publisher William Randolph Hearst Jr. as member of the World Quiz Bee Advisory Board.

For the past seven years, the National Quiz Bee has been running on very meager funding from the government and private sponsors. And according to Quiz Bee Foundation vice president Pettizou Tayag, soliciting funds has become frustrating as companies turn their backs on such a laudable undertaking. And to think that some of these companies would rather sponsor programs that destroy our moral fiber.

The problem facing Quiz Bee is shared by other educational programs, and the education sector in general. No wonder our country is fast losing its competitive edge. Our Asian neighbors, mind you, speak better English now.

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