What a year!

While the world investment community was still licking its wounds from the World Trade Center disaster on Sept. 1, 2001:

• Enron imploded with its fancy off-balance sheet transactions.

• Worldcom, the owner of MCI, went bankrupt from aggressive accounting. It understated its earnings by about $9 billion.

• Along the way, the august firm of Arthur Andersen went bust in August.

• Corporate governance was the key buzzword of the year.

• United Airlines finally threw up its hands and filed for bankruptcy when it could not find a win-win solution with its unions.

• The infamous Tyco, the GE-wannabe, fired Dennis Kozlowski, its CEO and CFO, for fraud and theft of about $150 million plus.

• The sniper of Virginia gave terror a new face, where children in the Virginia area could not even go outside to play, where filling up your gas could get you shot.

On a global scale, there was no respite from the storm:

• Israel and Palestine continue to squabble and kill each other’s children and innocent civilians.

• George W. continues to chase after Osama bin Laden and Saddam. And Saddam continues to taunt, as he plays one step ahead of George W. in this game of high-stakes poker.

• Venezuela’s poor just realized that they did not like their president and is now trying their hand at people power. (Hmmm…I wonder if the Philippines can export advisory work on how to do blood-free people power.)

The Philippines was not immune to scandals either:

• Meralco lost a Supreme Court ruling that alleged that it overcharged its customers between P8 billion and P28 billion.

• Maynilad, one of Manila’s two water concessionaires, gave up its franchise back to the MWSS, claiming that the government owes it $300 million plus.

• The Erap trials continue as the former president fights for his life in the country’s first plunder case.

• The $14-million bribe that was supposedly paid for the $400 CBK-IMPSA power project is still in search of a recipient.

• The new airport is 90-percent plus complete but can’t be finished because there is a dispute on whether the contract between the national government and PIATCO is valid. Funny how a $350-million airport could increase its cost up to $600 million.

• An alleged fugitive from the US, now a congressman of the Philippines, is accusing the head of the country’s justice department of extorting $2 million from him.

Under this cloud of uncertainty and volatility, is there a silver lining?

• Yes, smart businessmen are actually now expanding their manufacturing plants to produce substitute goods when imports become more expensive from the dollar appreciation. They have figured out a cost-efficient, domestic-sourced raw material to survive and succeed.

• The Philippines is losing its competitiveness in the manning industry to Vietnam. However, the good manning companies, which continue to focus on providing quality seamen with good training and qualifications, will achieve market share gains. They will continue to earn dollars and pay in pesos.

• BPO will continue to grow. The costs of our smart college graduates who are now underemployed are still a bargain on the world scale. We are creating a sub-culture of vampire-like creatures who work the night shift in order to call the deadbeats of America.

My Two Cents: And we wonder why the stock markets of America are in the doldrums? And we wonder why the Philippines is losing its direct foreign investors?

My only wish for 2003 is that everyone (you and me), government servants and crooks alike, start thinking about serving their fellowmen and not themselves. In God’s math, only when you start giving will you receive tenfold. Trust me, it works!

Filipinos are creative

Filipinos are inventive and creative. My friend from the ship manning business was describing to me that even in a supposedly "non-tamperable" computer testing at TESDA, everyone seems to have a passing grade of 87. There seems to be an enormous brainpower that Filipinos spend on "gaming the system" and figuring out how to maximize their personal gains.

On a more positive vein, I received a letter from a reader on the subject that I paraphrase below:

Dear Mr. Co,

I want to introduce to you a man I call "Oracle of Cebu," Mr. Edward Go Ching Hai. He is the father of the Hayco University of Cebu. On a recent trip to Cebu, I found this young man (78 this year) suffering from back pain.

His doctor friend suggested that a therapy using a hi-tech machine called VAX D could help solve his problem but the Oracle had to fly to the US. At his age, the Oracle said, "Next idea, please."

The Oracle then thought it a good idea if he bought the machine and donated it to the hospital when his treatment was over. The Oracle, of course, was surprised when he learned that the machine cost $125,000. The Oracle said, "Next idea, please."

He thus settled for the next best suggestion, physical therapy at a local hospital. After one session, the Oracle was again frustrated. He had to travel 45 minutes to the hospital and wait 45 minutes for his 10-minute therapy session. The Oracle said, "Next idea, please."

Necessity being the mother of invention, our young Oracle started studying and researching the causes and theories behind back pain through books and interviews with his doctor-friends. The result was a "10-peso" back pain remover built around a walker, a pulley and a belt. His maid manually operated this new machine. The result: his back was cured in a week for a fraction of the cost.

He is now working on a food supplement to rice, where protein and iodine can supplement the poor man’s diet.

We, in the Philippines, need to celebrate the Filipino mind and how his inventiveness is giving back a positive contribution to our society. We need to celebrate the Oracle of Cebu and our other inventors."

My Two Cents: Mr. Oracle of Cebu, I salute you! We need to nurture the inventors and the creative people as they give back to society a better mousetrap that can reduce our "pain" as a people.

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Dickson Co is CFO (C is for Cheap) of Dfnn, Intelligent Wave and HatchAsia. For comments and suggestions, e-mail [email protected].