The BW scandal has drawn the battle lines between the "bad guys" and "good guys" in the stock market. The low-key legitimate stockbrokers who have been trying to turn the market from an elite club of bigtime and middle-level businessmen into a mass-based financial institution are now being pitted against several aggressive players who appear to be overly greedy. Yes, the Philippine Stock Exchange is now in the middle of a storm. Its image has been heavily damaged, and even its very survival is being threatened. What a tragedy!
The fact that the PSE's very foundation was easily shaken by one scandal is understandable, because of the reality that the PSE seems to be an infant institution, although it has been in existence for several decades. The fact, too, that the PSE could hardly fend off the barrage of attacks by one person, who has been found by its investigators to have manipulated the share price of his own company, is very lamentable.
The PSE's pathetic plight has forced the legitimate stockbrokers who have invested time, money and effort for their institution, to take the needed steps to save it from crumbling. Which is laudable, because the PSE's survival depends on its ability to stop and punish scheming individuals who want to make instant riches through the manipulation of the stockmarket. Yes, the PSE should not allow one individual to wreak havoc on an institution that plays a very crucial role in the country's economy.
But then, this could be pining for the moon. Note that the PSE is apparently a weakling. Which is sad for the legitimate stockbrokers who are being unjustly dragged into the BW mess. This is tragic, too, for the other sectors that have a big stake in the survival of the stock market. These are the pillars of the business industry, entities like the Makati Business Club, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Financial Executives Association. These will be the biggest losers should the PSE collapse.
All concerned sectors should now close ranks with the "good guys" in the stockmarket industry. Their natural leader could be Finance Secretary Jose Pardo, the Estrada administration's economic czar. That President Erap has already issued the marching orders to Titoy Pardo is a good signal that the President is not going to tolerate any wrongdoing committed even by his close Chinese friends. Now, will Titoy Pardo step forward, and do what he should do -- for the sake of Erap and the country?
Yesterday, when I stepped into Manila Pen's Old Manila, for a luncheon meeting with Pilipinas Shell's country chairman Oscar Reyes, vice president Rey Gamboa, and corporate affairs coordinator Chupsie Medina, I thought I was going to attend a wake. All the waiters were sporting black bands tied around their arms, as though someone in the Manila Pen family had just passed away. I wanted to express sympathy and condolence, especially when I read the handwritten note scribbled in papers plastered on their chests. "WE CARE FOR OUR GUEST. BUT THE MANAGEMENT DOESN'T CARE FOR US," the hotel employees' message said.
The somber atmosphere seemed appropriate for my meeting with the Shell honchos. For Oscar, Rey, and Chupsie were also in a crying mood. Not only are they being lambasted by a noisy left-oriented minority for the oil price increases that are not under the Shell execs' control; but their company is also financially hemorrhaging by about P100 million a month because of Shell's subsidy of the oil prices being sold to the general public.
Every now and then, during lunch, we would ask the waiters with the black armbands what was going on at Manila Pen. "There is a deadlock in the collective bargaining agreement," they said. And they cried out their anguish, claiming that they are being unfairly treated. "Why are we of the rank-and-file being given a monthly increase of only P100, when the managers are going to get a hefty hike of P4,000 a month?" they said. Isn't this symbolic of the yawning gap between the rich and the poor?
As Oscar, Rey, Chupsie and I talked about the oil industry and the grip-like hold of the OPEC on oil prices and about the impracticability of Rep. Enrique "Tet" Garcia's proposal for the establishment of a National Oil Exchange, the topic of the nation's economy and the Estrada administration would crop up. And when I noticed how thin the fresh oysters were that we partook of, I wondered whether the oysters were symbolic of the Philippine economy, which is currently emaciated and underweight.
There are high hopes, though, for the Philippine energy sector, 18 months from now. By that time, Shell's US$2 billion Malampaya oil gas project, which is going to be the first in the country's history, will be operational. That will mean that our usual annual oil imports will go down by 25 percent. And if the Estrada administration succeeds in developing other alternative sources of energy, that will mean a big burden off the shoulders of the Philippine government in answering the country's energy requirements.
I suggested to Shell's execs to highlight once more the company's massive investment in the local economy. That piece of good news, such as Malampaya's operationalization 18 months from now, is going to dispel the wrong notion that Shell merely wants to make oodles upon oodles of money at the expense of the Filipino people.
Before we broke up, Rey Gamboa handed over to me Pilipinas Shell's position paper on the proposed National Oil Exchange. The points raised in the document are enlightening and apparently with basis. I shall take up some of the points raised, which will be my own way of clarifying what have become muddled issues in the minds of the confused public.
As I left Old Manila, I promised to offer prayers for the waiters with black armbands. And I told them I might even prepare a requiem for them, as my sign of condolence for the trials and tribulations they are going through. "May your troubled minds rest in peace -- and may your one hundred pesos grow a thousandfold!" I said to them, as my scooter rolled out of the portals of Old Manila.
Art A. Borjal's e-mail address:<jwalker@tri-isys.com>