Battle-royale

Two groups are vying to manage the PTT gas station at the Subic Freeport – the first, the Freeport Service Corporation, with 3,000 members, all of them employees of the Freeport (FSC) and most of them residents of Olongapo City, and the second, the Balikatan Ladies of Olongapo Movement (BLOOM),with 310 members and with only 50 of them employees at the Freeport. Earlier, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority had awarded the management contract to FSC, a subsidiary of the SBMA, after the lease period to BLOOM ended on December 9, 2001.

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BLOOM members numbering about a hundred thereupon staged a picket to protest SBMA’s action. In reaction, about 300 PSC officials and employees marched to the picket line at the gasoline station and lambasted BLOOM for refusing to give up its expired contract. On its part, SBMA defended its decision not to renew the BLOOM contract because of alleged violations, including failure to submit financial statements.

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PSC president Ruel John Kabigting said the FSC’s takeover of the management of the gasoline station will benefit 3,000 Subic Freeport employees, most of whom are minimum wage earners such as grass cutters, security guards, utility men, garbage collectors, and ground maintenance personnel. He added that there will be no under-declaration of gross income, as what has been happening in the past. Thus, correct dividends are going to be paid to the FSC members.

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It is interesting to note that the great bulk of FSC employees are holdovers of the previous SBMA administration in addition to their being volunteers and pioneers during the formative years of the FSC. In other words, they used to be Dick Gordon’s people. In contrast, to the 310 BLOOM members, only 50 are FSC employees.

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Don’t think that the earnings from the PTT gasoline station at the Freeport are peanuts. Each year, it generates some P28 million in income. Unfortunately, however, the profits from the gasoline station have not been plowed back to the members of the BLOOM management group. Strangely, though, the Cooperative Development Authority has not received any financial statements from BLOOM to indicate the dividend given to its members.

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For the information of the public, FSC with its 3,000 employees is one of the biggest employers at the Subic Freeport Zone. It is also said that FSC is a good employer because it faithfully complies with wage laws and regulations. In a letter sent to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, FSC president Kabigting appealed for help in further strengthening FSC’s financial posture, by allowing it to manage the PTT gasoline station at the Freeport, as an additional revenue source.

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Politics has, as usual, tended to becloud the substantive issues involved in the operation of the Freeport gasoline station. Lost in the welter of the sound and fury emanating from BLOOM, which is closely associated with the Gordons of Olongapo, are the compelling points why FSC should have the right to run the station and produce a bit boon not only to Freeport employees but to the SBMA itself, insofar as the country’s economic development is concerned.

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Craig Proctor, a British citizen married to a Filipina for over nine years now and has been residing in the Philippines for a long time, is keeping his fingers crossed and praying hard that the Philippines, where all his children were born, would soon have its economic resurrection. He believes the country has a great potential to be a major player in the Asian and world markets. However, he noted, the current Philippine banking system discourages new major foreign investments, citing his own experience.

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Proctor recently received a check from his parents, who are living in the US, as a gift for his children’s Christmas. It was a Bank Of America check, from their US account, payable in US dollars. He then contacted the Bank of America branch in Makati to find out if it would honor the payment, although he did not have an account with them.

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The bank said it would not honor the check and advised Proctor to contact his own bank, the International Exchange Bank’s main branch in Makati where he had a peso checking account. There, he was told that by his bank that it would not be able to convert the check from dollar to pesos. The conversion can only be done, the bank officials said, if he opened a US dollar account instead.

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"Basically, the check is virtually worthless in the Philippines. Some local businesses could have made some little profit for Christmas from the gifts I would have bought for my children from the check," Proctor said. "I keep reading all the time about the government begging for foreign investments, but I can understand why major corporations are afraid to invest with such archaic banking practices." He suggested that the authorities concerned immediately take the needed steps to bring the local banking system into the 21st century.

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Proctor, though, has a happy ending to his story. He intends to send his check to his bank in the United Kingdom. There, they will pay the check directly into his account, without any problem. "It will just take a little longer for my children to receive their Christmas present from their grandparents," he added.

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THOUGHTS FOR TODAY:

Everything about the future is uncertain,
but one thing is sure:
God had already arranged all our tomorrows.
We just have to trust Him as He leads us.

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There is no better exercise for the heart
than reaching down and lifting people up.
May you be a blessing to others
as God blesses you.

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My e-mail addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]