An inside look at Globe Telecom

Manila: We just attended the Globe Telecom Annual Stockholders’ Meeting and learned about their performance for year 2008. Globe earned 11.3 billion, 15% lower than in 2007. Given today’s Telecom industry figures of P250 billion, P63 billion came from Globe Telecom. This drop in their profits is reflective of the global financial crisis but it hasn’t deterred Globe from pursuing their goals. 

The latest news from Globe Telecom is they just invested P4.32 billion (US$90 million) for its second international submarine cable landing station in Ballesteros, Cagayan to strengthen their lead and growth in broadband interconnection. Their first submarine cable station is in Nasugbu, Batangas. While broadband is only 13% of Globe’s total revenues, Gil Genio, head of Globe’s Business/Carrier Services said, “Broadband is the future.” I agree with him that this is the way of the future.

Today the total revenues from the Telecom Industry is P 250 billion, of which P63 billion belongs to Globe; P12 billion was paid to the Bureau of Internal Revenue for 2008. I’m sure that the other Telecom companies also pay a similar amount, except that Globe is the only Telecom company that doesn’t pay Revolutionary Taxes because it is the only Telco whose cellsites have been bombed by the New People’s Army NPA, while the others haven’t been touched.

But what future is there for the Telecom Industry when once again Congress wants to “tax the text” purportedly to use the money to improve our educational system? Forgive me for being skeptical of the moves of certain Congressmen and women, but this issue apparently surfaces and dies every three years. Call it an uncanny coincidence that whenever this issue is raised in Congress, it usually happens just before the elections. Are we looking at a pre-election collection strategy by Congress? It looks like it!

I finally met the newly-appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of Globe Telecom, Mr. Ernest L. Cu whose I.T. Company he sold to a competitor and officially joined Globe yesterday. Mr. Cu said that the telecom industry has already matured and will shift to the next gear, which is content. He is the right man on the job as he is the first I.T. expert to run a Telecom company, while the others are either finance or marketing experts.

While my good friend Mr. Gerry Ablaza has been “kicked” upstairs and is no longer Globe President, he is now Vice-President of Ayala Corp. that oversees not only Globe but also the other Ayala business groups. As Gerry said, “The best is still to come for Globe.” The Globe stockholders gave him a long standing ovation.

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Today is the historic Tres de Abril or 3rd of April 1898 uprising (It was a Palm Sunday then) where the Cebu-based Katipuneros under the command of Pantaleon Villegas a.k.a. Leon Kilat grabbed control of Cebu City and sent the Spanish forces inside the Fort San Pedro where they holed out for many days in what was an unprecedented, albeit short-lived victory of the poorly-armed Cebuanos against the might of the Spanish forces under Gen. Montero.

I’m pretty sure that many, if not all our own students studying here in Cebu do not even know what Tres de Abril means and why there is a street named for this date. This is why it is imperative that this incident must be written in our history books. At least former FREEMAN assistant Editor Emil Justimbaste give a lengthy and very detailed report on this historic incident with the collaboration of the Cebuano Studies Center and published it in June 12,1998 during the Centennial Anniversary of the Philippine Revolution. Without their recording of this historic event, someday someone might just change Tres de Abril into someone else’s name.

Leon Kilat and his Katipuneros met the Spanish troops at the junction of V. Rama and Tres de Abril St. and overwhelmed the Spaniards who retreated to the Fort San Pedro for almost seven days until the cruiser Don Juan Austria arrived in Cebu Port to reinforce Gen. Montero. Then the Katipuneros dispersed to the countryside,

No doubt, Leon Kilat showed great courage and tenacity. But because communication was still crude in those days, no one in Cebu knew that just two days before the Tres de Abril uprising on April 1,1898, the US Asiatic Fleet already fought the Spanish Armada under Admiral Montojo and won a great victory of the Battle of Manila Bay. A few months later, the Cebuanos under Gen. Maxilom fought the Spaniards and established a revolutionary government, which was also short-lived as the Americans arrived in Cebu.