Tugade: The more (airports) the merrier

When Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade sat beside me in the glittering ballroom of the New World Hotel last week where there was a business forum, I dropped what I was doing.

I was trying to finish a story, but when I saw him, I ignored my deadline. All I wanted was to hear his thoughts on all the airport proposals.

Tugade, however, dampened my excitement, immediately joking that choosing a seat next to a journalist was not a good idea.

And so in the end, I didn’t really get a lot of answers. He simply said he welcomed all the airport proposals.

“The more the merrier.”

In his speech later on, he said the Philippines could also have many airports like in Japan.

“In Japan, they have the option to decide where they fly, how they fly and what fare they pay when they fly,” Tugade said in his trademark booming voice.

The Philippines, he said, can have San Miguel Corp.’s Bulacan airport, a redeveloped Clark International Airport and an expanded Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

He is probably right. The country will benefit from all these new airports.

But the government has to decide fast. We need better airports now, if not yesterday, to catch up with the country’s growing economy. It’s also a good place to start if we want to make the Philippines more attractive to investors and tourists.

I do hope all our airports would improve to serve Filipinos and other travellers better.

Speaking of airport proposals, Joey Concepcion, the indefatigable presidential adviser on entrepreneurship, told me there would be no bickering within the super consortium for NAIA and that the group will respect the current process on unsolicited offers.

“I put all these conglomerates together to help partner with our government to improve connectivity so MSMEs will prosper. Airports are key to this as tourism is the next leg to push. All of them agreed to respect the government’s decision and no one will take this to court,” he said.

The race for the 3rd telco spot gets tighter

The race to become the country’s third telco player is getting to be as exciting as the battle for NAIA.

Last month, I broke the story on the plan of Northcom Telecommunications to enter the Philippines. Northcom, the only private telco company in China, wants to be the third, or even the fourth telco player here.

My sources weren’t kidding. Just last week, Northcom officials met with no less than President Duterte to discuss the matter.

The meeting, which took about an hour to finish, was fruitful, sources told me. Duterte assured the Chinese businessmen that the whole selection process would be fair.

Northcom is already in talks with potential local partners.

Among the local players, meanwhile, there’s also talk that Dennis Uy of Davao (not Dennis Uy of Pampanga) may lead a consortium of Filipino companies that want to be part of the telco race.

The list is getting longer. Just last week, the Department of Information and Communications Technology said it has invited Philcom, a company identified with the Sy group, to join the bidding for the third telco.

Now Corp., another possible third telco player, meanwhile, just received a 25-year franchise extension. It’s an exciting time indeed; the wild ruckus is only just starting.

Will SEC chairperson Teresita Herbosa be reappointed?

“I don’t want to think about that yet,” said the feisty Securities and Exchange Commission chair Teresita Herbosa, whose term ends in March, when I asked her if she would say yes to a second term.

Or would she accept it if she gets appointed as the next chief justice of the Supreme Court? Herbosa could not dodge the question. Instead, she explained that she is no longer qualified to be CJ because of her age.

But word on the street is that she is supposedly among those being eyed as the next CJ as “reward” for the SEC’s move to revoke the incorporation papers of Rappler.

Herbosa, however, maintained there was nothing political about the SEC’s decision on Rappler, reiterating that the media outfit, which Duterte considers a thorn on his side, violated the Constitution.

There’s also talk that Rappler lawyer Francis Lim could be the next SEC chief but SEC insiders said this is unlikely to happen.

Or could it be SEC commissioner Emilio Aquino, the first Duterte appointee in the commission? Let’s wait and see.

Should you invest in fine art or in photography?

Banks and art dealers around the globe are now recognizing photography as a form of investment.

Coutts Bank, one of the world’s oldest banks, said in 2016 that the value of classic cars and fine art has declined and photography has emerged as a new form of art investment.

Photography was probably the hottest new investment instrument among collectibles, Coutts said in an article on The Guardian.

Sotheby’s too has recognized that photography is now bigger than ever, with an ever-increasing array of exhibitions and auction sales of photographs happening all over the world.

The Philippines has likewise joined the trend.

Art Fair Philippines 2018, co-presented by Ayala companies, will present for the first time documentary photography in its collection.

“Provocations: Philippine Documentary Photography” will feature the works of some of the country’s documentary photographers including Alex Baluyut, Nana Buxani, Kat Palasi, Tommy Hafalla, Geloy Concepcion, Carlo Gabuco, Jose Enrique Soriano, Veejay Villafranca and Jes Aznar.

Art Fair will run from March 1 to 4 at The Link Carpark in Makati City.

Iris Gonzales’ e-mail address is [email protected]