AT the rate controversies are sprouting like mushrooms and investigations are being launched by different government agencies as if the whole nation is in chaos, I must say I don’t envy our political leaders. I can even understand if some of them have stopped reading newspapers or watching the news just to get a few hours of sleep at night.
With this observation, I could not avoid looking back at the 2010 presidential elections, wherein I lost. When I say my loss was good and that it turned out to be a blessing, some people may raise their eyebrows. I would, too, if I did not experience the positive change that followed the elections.
I am not one to dwell on defeat, or waste time trying to find out the reason or reasons for it. Instead, I turned to the values and discipline I acquired when I became an entrepreneur more than three decades ago.
Successful businessmen, for instance, see opportunities in times of crises, while others see only despair. They know that liabilities can be turned into assets. For myself, I knew that my loss in the presidential elections paved the way for opportunities outside politics.
When I finally stepped down at the end of my term as senator, I made a 360-degree turn and went back to the world of business. My business is a lot bigger now than before I went into politics.
As I said in a previous column, this is the best time to be a businessman in the Philippines, which has attracted the world’s attention after receiving investment-grade ratings from all major international credit-rating agencies, and has been recognized as the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia and the second-fastest in Asia.
The World Bank announced in August that it had lowered its 2014 growth forecast for the Philippines to 6.4 percent, in terms of gross domestic product, down from its June forecast of 6.6 percent, before recovering to 6.7 percent in 2015.
The Asian Development Bank also lowered its projection, from 6.4 percent to 6.2 percent in 2014, and 6.4 percent in 2015. Despite the downgrade, the Philippines is still expected to lead growth among the major economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Many industries are expected to post higher growth rates than the Philippine economy. The real-estate industry is one of them because of continuing robust demand. In the office-building segment, demand is driven by the business-process outsourcing industry, for which the Philippines is recognized as one of the most desired destinations. In the housing business, the persistent backlog of about 4 million units (particularly in the low-income and affordable segments) sustains demand, which, in turn, is fueled, in large part, by remittances from overseas Filipino workers.
Thus, I can say that my return to private business could not have come at a better time. My flagship company, Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., continues to sustain double-digit increases in profits. For the first semester of 2014, the listed company’s net income grew by 12 percent to P2.8 billion, compared with P2.5 billion a year ago. Revenues reached P11 billion, up 14 percent from P9.7 billion year-on-year.
The company expects to sustain the double-digit growth rates for another record in 2014. In 2013 Vista Land reported a net income of P5.1 billion, the highest achieved in the company’s history. With a land bank of almost 2,000 hectares throughout the country, Vista Land is strategically positioned to take advantage of opportunities in the housing business. The company has the widest geographical reached among the major players in the business; its projects are spread out in 34 provinces and 74 cities and municipalities.
Based on these developments, I even dare say that I was lucky I lost in the 2010 presidential elections.
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