BIZ BUZZ: Diokno’s ‘conflicts of interest’?

With the resistance to the proposed combination with Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) heating up, Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) appears to be not only lobbing antitank defenses onto the merger juggernaut, but also sniping at the pilot’s seat.

Aside from parrying legal arguments from the Department of Finance and the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and -Controlled Corporations (GCG), DBP is calling attention to “apparent conflicts (yes, plural) of interest” involving Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno.

We all know, of course, that Diokno is the main voice calling for the merger of the two government banks.

“As Finance Secretary, Diokno is an ex officio member of GCG to which the merger proposal was submitted,” DBP chair Dante Tinga says.

“Also, he is the ex officio chairman of LBP (Landbank) and will remain so after LBP becomes the surviving ‘superbank’ following the merger,” adds the former Congressman and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

But wait, there’s more. Tinga says, “On top of that, Diokno, who was Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) before his appointment to the Cabinet, is a member of the Monetary Board of the BSP which regulates banking in the country.”

For Tinga, Landbank “is a failure” when measured against the low agricultural productivity and low food security in the country.

This is not to say, however, that Diokno has no ammunition of his own. Last April, the leader of the Marcos administration’s economic team said—in so many words—that DBP itself is redundant, as Landbank is also big on funding infrastructure development, which is supposed to be DBP’s turf.

“What DBP can do, Landbank can do also,” Diokno told reporters.“ And Landbank is superior in terms of computerization. DBP is not even digitalized [and] Landbank is ahead.”

But the problem with Tinga’s criticisms is that it is not Diokno’s fault he holds the positions that appear to create conflicts of interest. He was duly appointed to them.

Meanwhile, GCG has clarified that there is no decision yet on proceeding with the merger. Both sides, for and against the union, are looking at President Marcos for clues on what will happen next.

—Ronnel W. Domingo

Hotel 101 reverse colonization

The Hotel 101 chain of DoubleDragon Corp. is taking on global hotel giants with its aggressive international expansion.

Part of the goal is putting the Filipino brand of hospitality on the world map but it’s also interesting to note how their first few overseas locations—Japan, Spain and the United States—appear to be targeting countries whose people had once occupied the Philippines as colonizers.

Reverse colonization or not, it seems DoubleDragon’s tycoon owners, Edgar “Injap” Sia II and Tony Tan Caktiong, are taking these first deliberate steps to further fine-tune the business model. The biggest target so far appears to be the United States, which the group sees as a major market.

In fact, Sia has a more definitive road map here, having set a target for 10 states by 2026.

He told Biz Buzz the shortlist includes California, New York, Florida (Miami), Nevada, Texas, Washington DC, Illinois (Chicago), Georgia (Atlanta), Washington (Seattle) and Hawaii.

We expect more updates as Hotel 101 sets out to become a top global hospitality brand in the future.

—Miguel R. Camus

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