PLDT Chairman Manuel Pangilinan addressing fellow shareholders today during the annual meeting. Photo by Callmecreation.com
… There is still no global standard yet for 5G so commercial roll out may still be in 2020. PLDT [PSE:TEL] Chairman Manuel Pangilinan said they have not yet figured out if by 2019 they would still prioritize the installation of fixed lines (fiber) or concentrate on 5G to bring broadband to customers. For 2018, PLDT will still continue with its fiber rollout but after that is still going to be internally discussed within the group.
You see, PLDT has earmarked PHP 58bn (USD 1.1bn) for capital expenditures for 2018 alone. It had to sell down its stake in Rocket Internet to partly finance this capex. It can’t add more to its outstanding debts and Pangilinan said they must maintain their debt/EBITDA at 2. The company is in a quandary as to how it will keep its financials healthy in a capital-intensive industry that is constantly changing. In a briefing last year, Pangilinan said that PLDT has to study how it can harness 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) and they still have to figure out how they can finance its capex down the line to keep up with these new tech.
Technically, 5G technology in the Philippines is already here. Globe Telecom launched it last week with much fanfare that I thought its commercial rollout will start soon.
I was wrong. It’ll be rolled out in 2Q2019 first for prepaid home broadband customers.
Because, according to Globe President Ernet Cu, the potential for 5G application is limited in a mobile phone so it makes more sense to launch it first for home broadband users. This will also eliminate the need for Globe to lay down more copper wires or fiberoptic cables to reach more customers. All they have to do is to build on top of exisiting cellular towers by installing Massive MIMO on them. Chief Technology Officer Gil Genio said 5G will only be launched in cities because there should be a tower every 250m or so, hence, density is the key for good coverage.
I’m skeptical. We still have sketchy Globe signal in my mom’s house in UP Los Baños, which is not exactly a rural area. So how in the world can Globe boast 2 Gbps over the air?
In a country where the only players that matter are PLDT and Globe? Where the system of infrastructure is stuck in the 20th Century (no third-party tower operators like in…well… like the rest of the world)? Good luck.
Until a third player comes in or PLDT relents and becomes amenable to having third-party tower operators, we are stuck with having 20,000 cellular towers nationwide, serving 106m Filipinos spread out across 7,700 islands. In contrast, Vietnam has 50,000 cellular towers for its 80m citizens. To be fair to Globe, it is open to selling its towers and just lease from tower operators so that much of its capex would be freed and diverted to improving customer experience.
As DICT Secretary Rio said, there should be at least 2.5 carriers in each tower for a tower operator to be viable. Globe and a third telco player makes only 2; we need PLDT to be on board.
Let’s see.
Disclaimer: I both cover Globe and PLDT. My mobile operator is Smart (PLDT) while my home broadband is Globe.
“And Katharine Graham made a very risky decision without knowing what the newspaper really stands for…The concept of standing up for the principles of press freedom. She made a very momentous choice by saying, ‘Publish’.”
And quoting from the movie, “The Post”, Pangilinan said, ‘News is the first draft of history.”
PLDT Inc chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan (or MVP, as popularly known in business circles) was our guest speaker during the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) induction of officers on 2 February. We were told he will not give a keynote address and would just induct the incoming officers for 2018.
He surprised us with an impromptu speech, starting with the story of The Post, the Tom Hanks-Meryl Streep movie about the Pentagon Papers and the Washington Post. I think he was inspired by the movie that he was prompted to give a short speech about mass media. (He watches at least two movies a month, he said).
And as the owner of two newspapers, The Philippine Star and Businessworld, and broadcasting company TV5 Network Inc, PLDT should know the pitfalls and difficult decisions a media outfit needs to make, especially during a time when press freedom is under heavy attack.
By telling the story of The Post to us business journos, Pangilinan was relaying to us his reflections on the repercussions or the rewards of bringing out the truth…and the snowballing of the Pentagon papers and later on, the Watergate scandal.
“So it just points out to the very valuable role that media plays in a democracy like ours,” he said.
“And everyone, including the leadership, must accept that is important. It is not a weakness but it is actually a source of strength.”
The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally said it: initial coin offerings (ICOs) are illegal if the issuers don’t register the coins with the regulators.
That was the thing I had asked them way back in November last year when Joseph Calata declared on national TV that he will offer Calata Corp minority shareholders coins in exchange for their shares as an exit in the wake of the company’s delisting and ban from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). At that time, the SEC Commissioners were very careful with their response to my query. They said they are closely watching what their counterparts in Singapore and Malaysia are going to do in light of the increase in ICOs being conducted in the region.
So last week, the SEC finally issued the cease and desist order (CDO) on the Krops ICO by companies headed by Calata.
The idiot Calata reminds me of Pharma Bro. Seems like he doesn’t have any conscience at all. As I told a friend over on Facebook, para syang ipis na binato mo na ng tsinelas pero buhay pa rin. Lumipad pa papunta sa yo! Anyway, that’s a different topic for another blog entry.
So in November, I asked the SEC what they thought of cryptocurrencies and ICOs. Commissioner Emiliano Aquino said ICOs are risky and their Malaysian counterparts have issued that warning to the public. He said the Malaysian authorities will be coming out with their own set of rules governing ICOs and cryptocurrencies soon and the Philippines will be watching out for that. As it is, there are no black and white rules on ICOs yet anywhere in the world, except for the bans imposed by China and South Korea.
Aquino had said then they he personally thought that coins, in the context of ICOs, are securities, just as what the Hong Kong and Thai regulators have declared.
“They can be considered as investment contracts so the SEC can invoke its authority over such fundraising activities. But this is a new territory and we cannot just quickly swoop in with new rules. This has to be thought carefully because we don’t want to stifle the potential of these new instruments,” he said.
I asked Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP, the central bank) Governor Nestor Espenilla what does he think coins are, since the BSP has recognized two local coin exchangers who use these instruments in remittance services. He said:
“If it looks like a security, smells like a security, quacks like a security, then it is a security.”
There you go.
Fast forward to 29 January 2018. The SEC called for a press conference to discuss the Krop coins and ICOs in general.
So Comm. Aquino has formally declared ICOs illegal if these coins are not registered with the SEC. Because essentially these coins are securities because they are instruments used to raise funds from other people. All securities are under the purview of the SEC.
So what are securities? Securities = they secure an investment. As mentioned above, these are contracts that ensure an investor will get something back for the amount he/she injected into a company. It can be in the form of debt (bonds, notes, commercial papers) or shares (as in equities = common shares or preferred shares) or a hybrid of that.
So no argument there, coins are securities and under the Securities Regulation Code, the SEC is the authority on that.
But why would start-ups register their coins with regulators and go through the hoops like in a regular initial public offering when the main reason why they would like to launch an ICO is they want to evade regulation and raise money fast? There is little incentive for them to do that when they could do an ICO somewhere else since we live now in a borderless world.
If we go back to the origins of digital currencies, specifically bitcoins, this quote from the creator of bitcoin is very telling: “a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust” (based on the paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto). Essentially, the creators, users, and investors want a currency system that is beyond the reach of central banks. No regulators, just algorithms.
I have interviewed some foreign start-ups about their fundraising plans and one of them said they want to launch an ICO this year in Hong Kong alongside their Series B fundraise because 1) it’s faster than venture capital fundraise since VC requirements are stringent (but of course they should be, they’re plunking money on unproven businesses!); and 2) there will be no or minimal dilution of existing/angel investors.
And mind you, there is an active market in Southeast Asia now for ICOs. Crowd Genie, the licensed Singapore-based peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, is currently conducting its ICO to raise USD 5m. I think I read somewhere that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is closely watching this ICO to make this it’s test case.
So, if ICOs can be conducted anywhere in the world and can offer the coins to whoever, how can the Philippine SEC keep Filipinos and OFWs (they seem to be the prime target of ICOs by shady companies being tracked now by the SEC) from being victimized by dodgy coin issuers? Can they physically run after the operations of these companies like what they did with “boiler rooms” ten years ago?
Comm Aquino said they can. They are now also enlisting the help of HK authorities to verify the registration of Calata’s Krop company (because he claimed the ICO will be done in HK). Aquino said, the HK authorities have also declared unregistered ICOs illegal while those in mainland China have altogether banned the exercise.
This is just the beginning of the ICO saga.
I’ve read somewhere that VCs are now beginning to feel the competition as start-ups now turn to ICOs for fundraising. Will VC’s role in growth capital raising be dimished? We’ll see.
No, this is not an issue of “hurt” feelings of one journalist. We are made of sterner stuff, so one f*ck you is just the many f*ck yous we will receive in the course of our professional lives.
This is about how a public official sees and treats people around her, how she belittles people who are not within the same social and economic circle. Makes you wonder if her “concern for the poor” is really genuine or her “passion for the environment” is really true or is just a means to glorify herself. I don’t know the answers—these are real questions of an inquisitive mind.
I’m neither pro nor anti-mining (you can see from my background, who my parents are) but if a public official, an environmental crusader, wants genuine change, she should look inward. Then she should go through the legal and right processes so the directive and department orders that she implements are fool-proof or have legal bases so these won’t just get thwarted by technicalities used by the lawyers of the entities she wants penalized. Because long-lasting institutional change cannot be achieved by shortcuts.
Post-script: And this is what I’ve learned in my short stint in UP Pahinungod. Pahinungod = offering; dedication. Not outreach. Outreach means you come from a different place and will still be in that different place. But offering = dedication means you are not separate from the people you serve…you are one of them.
There lies the difference, Madam Lopez.
Quizzed on mining directive, Gina Lopez vents ire on BW reporter: ‘You’re just a f—ing employee’
By: InterAksyon
April 6, 2017 6:08 PM
MANILA – Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Regina Lopez on Wednesday unleashed a tirade on a reporter of BusinessWorld, whose questions about mining she resented, in the process describing the journalist as “bought by the greed and selfishness.”
Sec. Lopez had earlier on made known her impatience in responding to questions from BusinessWorld reporter Janina Lim, calling her out as she started asking: “You know, you’re just a f—ing employee” and then saying that Lim had “no heart for the poor.”
Lim, however, pressed on with her questions, asking the twice-bypassed secretary to elaborate on her new order for miners to set aside more funds apart from what they are required to contribute to a “Rehabilitation Fund” for formerly mined lands.
Lopez said she wants miners to draw from their profits and pay hard-up farmers “out of the rehab zone”.
Lopez told Lim: “All I am asking is to give 2 million pesos to every farmer of a farm that’s out of the Rehab Zone. What’s wrong with that? They’re disadvantaged, it’s out of the rehab zone. Who’s gonna take care of it? Why don’t you have a heart, you know? All I am asking is to put money for a farmer who has been disadvantaged by the mining, what’s wrong with that?”
Told by Lim that miners have appealed to the Office of the President questioning the “additional requirement” and sought for her reaction, Lopez cut her short: “What questioning? They disadvantaged all the farm lands, they should f—ing take care of it. What’s wrong with that? They’re making so much money from the stock pile. Don’t you think, they should take care of the farmers that they disadvantage? You in your heart, don’t you think they should? Who’s gonna take care of the farmers? It’s out of rehab zone. Who’s gonna take care of it? The money that they have for rehab doesn’t take care of the farmers out of the rehab zone. Who’s gonna take care of it?”
Sidenote: It was an ambush interview with five reporters that time. It was not a private conversation and she is fully aware that there were recorders.
DENR’s Lopez defends new mining directive as she accuses BW reporter of ‘being bought’
In the process of defending the proposal — which is being questioned by miners — however, Ms. Lopez lost her composure and suggested that reporters covering the matter had been “bought.”
The Environment secretary told BusinessWorld reporter Janina C. Lim: “You’re just a fucking employee,” Ms. Lopez blurted out the line as she was stopped by Ms. Lim and another reporter on the landing of the second floor of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) office in Quezon City.
At that time, Ms. Lopez was taking the stairs on the way up to her office on the fourth floor.
The exchange between the official and the reporter took place minutes after several DENR employees supposedly called off a rally against the secretary that was set for nine that morning. Just a few days before the incident, Ms. Lim filed an exclusive report, saying that the Civil Service Commission rejected the temporary appointment of Mr. Philip G. Camarra, who was appointed by Ms. Lopez as DENR undersecretary.
The incident on Thursday morning began when Ms. Lim, who has been covering the environment and agriculture beats since January last year, asked the secretary whether she was attending a meeting of the Mining Industry Coordinating Council that afternoon at the National Economic and Development Authority office in Pasig City.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines condemns Environment Secretary Gina Lopez’s totally unjustified behavior toward Businessworld reporter Janina Lim, who she cursed and maligned Thursday for simply doing her job.
It is doubly unfortunate that Ms. Lopez, the scion of a family intimately involved in media, should justify her boorishness toward Ms. Lim by blaming one of the qualities indispensable to being a journalist – persistence.
A recording of Ms. Lopez’s tirade captured her berating Lim of being “just a f—ing employee” and asking the reporter why she did not have a “heart for the poor.”
Ms. Lim was simply asking Ms. Lopez to elaborate on her order for miners to set aside more funds apart from what they are required to contribute to a “rehabilitation fund” for formerly mined lands but the DENR secretary berated Lim and another colleague, telling them: “You know, you guys should do your work, but why don’t you have a heart for the poor? Where’s your heart?”
When Ms. Lim tried to follow up, Ms. Lopez turned on her and said: “You know you are so young and you’re already bought by the greed and selfishness.”
It was at this point that Ms. Lim finally answered Ms. Lopez squarely, saying: “I was not bought, Ma’am. I was not bought. Thank you. Thank you.”
Ms. Lopez subsequently sent a message to Businessworld attempting to explain her side. If anything, however, she only helped indict herself even more.
She claimed she was late and rushing to a TV interview when accosted by Lim in a stairway and was piqued because she had “often been irritated” by the “line of questioning” of the “young and persistent reporter.”
“She was not the best person to meet while rushing for an appointment. So I lost my cool with her,” Ms. Lopez said in her message to Businessworld.
She also attempted to blame Lim for recording “a repartee that took place in a stairway” that, she claimed, should have been “left in the privacy for which it is meant,” even hinting the whole incident seemed to be “like looking for some kind of hole to punch.”
When does being “irritated” by a “persistent reporter” give a public official or anyone else for that matter the right to verbally abuse them?
If, indeed, Ms. Lim had consistently and persistently shown objectionable or offensive behavior in the course of her work, Ms. Lopez could easily have communicated this with the reporter’s superiors and asked that the situation be rectified.
And no, Ms. Lopez, what happened was not “repartee.” It was a legitimate attempt by a journalist to interview you on an issue related to your work and, thus, of public interest.
If you were, as you claim, in a hurry because you were late for an interview, you could have simply said so or even ignored the question. Instead, you actually took the time to stop and insult Ms. Lim and, worse, belittled her for being “just a f—ing employee,” as if honest toil were something to be ashamed of.
Ms. Lopez, your zeal for the causes close to your heart can never justify your despicable treatment of Ms. Lim. If anything, such a mindset, which brooks no questioning or dissent, is anathema to democracy.
We demand that you apologize to Ms. Lim and pledge to be more open to questioning. This is the least you can do.
Reference:
Ryan Rosauro, chairperson
NUJP Hotline 09175155991
I need my data. I am an online journalist after all. I have my Facebook and Twitter accounts open at all times because my job requires me to. I have to access YouTube videos and be able to upload or download large amounts of data because I also post in our CMS and do all sorts of things when uploading a story. I stream videos and audios, especially oral arguments at the Supreme Court. And I download—all sorts of things.
And here I am contemplating whether or not I would bump up my speeds and be tied to another 24-month lock-in period. Or I can pay P5,000 to be able to be free of that lock-in contract.
The employee then calls Globe Telecoms, and encounters a straight run of awkward, plain disinformation:
He is told that this data cap is mandated by the NTC. Telcos asked NTC to include this in administrative memoranda back in 2011, and had NTC not rejected the proposal, this would have given Globe Telecoms and PLDT-Smart the means to impose caps. This would help them to expand their customer base, by enabling them to take on more customers at a reduced level of service. It makes absolutely no sense that the National Telecommunications Commission would impose a restriction on commerce this way, and not have consumers fight back. (A word of advice to you at Globe Telecoms: Fire whoever they were who devised the call center agents’ script, effectively making these workers lie for you.)
