The Concept of "Urbanidad"

For two terms now, I have prohibited the wearing of slippers in my classes. I hope to hear the thoughts of my students about this. Please give your honest opinion on this topic. Kindly click the link to the article - The Concept of "Urbanidad". I will greatly appreciate it. Thank you. --mavic pineda

The Game Ka Na Ba TV Show - A Review of Ethical and Social Responsibility

A growing business will have some basic responsibilities. First is economic. The famous Milton Friedman in the past advocates that "the business's ultimate goal is economic" which is very reasonable. The business likewise has its legal, ethical and social responsibilities.

Let's take the case of the TV show Game Ka Na Ba of ABS-CBN which started in 2004. The show randomly chooses its participants from a pool of people texting their personal info. The home viewers also have a chance to win during the show through texting. A text commonly costs P10 pesos. P2 pesos goes to the telco company like Globe or Smart. If there are 50,000 texters, the show has automatically P500,000 or P1M if there are 100,000 texters in one scenario.

As a business, it's economically viable having a pool of advertisers and revenues from the text or SMS messages. As a TV show of ABS-CBN we can assume it's legally registered and pays its taxes. How does the show perform social responsibilities?

In the show, the best player gets to answer sequences of questions with given clues. The contest progresses like a pyramid, the contestant gets to be challenged by a higher monetary prize if he gets to answer the question correctly. If he is unable to answer the question correctly, he might lose all her/his winnings. The biggest prize is P1M pesos. The contestant has the option to settle for a smaller prize like P350,000 or P500,000 wherein she or he could avail a showcase package (can be in a form of livelihood like a tricycle or sari-sari store) that can be shared with a friend or family member or somebody in need of charity.

This showcase may be considered as a form of social responsibility wherein the business is able to return a service back to society. It's like helping your community while you are earning. But a business may also use this charity or social responsibility as a tax exemption. So the more a business exercises CSR, the less tax it pays. Or a business may use this as a form of free advertising. While the business gets tax exemption, it gets promoted thru the charity service.

And the other conflict here is the ethical issue. As the show earns, encouraging millions of viewers to participate in texting or sending SMS to join the contest--isn't it unethical? The show has propagated that joining contests thru SMS, spending P10 per chance or entry is acceptable and it's a norm. You'll have a chance of winning. Doesn't it follow the same principle of gambling? Doesn't it promote a practice, an attitude of spending for a chance to win? Doesn't it promote dependency on the show, giving false hope to the viewers because in reality, the more texters there are, the higher slim chance of winning. Doesn't it promote an attitude of passive acceptance of the show? This means that the audience would care less on how the emcee is intimidating the contestant or if the answer to the question is really correct because the audience concern is whether she or he is going to win for that night. Is this being ethical? Is this the kind of social responsibility that the show or the broadcast station should give back to the society?

Ethical and social responsibility is not only measured by the amount of assistance or service given to those deprived in the society (physically, mentally or financially). It is not an easy, well-understood thing. Being ethical is keeping, holding to some moral principles shared by all the stakeholders of the business. And more than the financial support, CSR is educating the society, promoting a lifelong healthy society.

The Phil Banking System

Here in our country, we have so many banks--universal banks, commercial banks, savings banks, thrift/rural savings bank, development or even agri-business banks. There are so many categories. What's ironic, most of the big or universal banks like BPI, Metrobank or Banco de Oro have all kinds of banks. These banks also have high visibility in the major cities.

Our banks, in my opinion, are in a "dog eats dog" thing. The strong and big banks do not help the small banks to survive. The small or new banks have slim chance of survival. These giant, depositor- hungry banks would rather buy or take over a weaker bank. They don't think of the employees who will be affected. The top executives only think of the bigger share of the pie they will get. Where is the moral responsibility to the constituents--the employees, the depositors and others? It has become a survival of the fittest.

Bank Mergers and Buyout

In the Phils, bank mergers or buyouts are not new. Commercial banks, when they want to be come stronger they try to acquire other banks. FarEast bank was taken over by BPI. Solidbank was taken over by MetroBank. UnionBank now takes over IEBank. PCIBank was taken over by Equitable Bank and now, Banco de Oro takes over Equitable Bank.

Such mergers or buyouts will have implications within the respective banks.

Within the banks, redundant positions like tellers or even IT positions could be removed. An employee is not certain wether she or he will still have work for the following day.

It will likewise have implications to the depositors whether we are talking about individual or corporate depositors. A firm transacting regularly with Bank A, accustomed to its practices and know the manager and employees she or he deals with, will be faced now and will have to transact with a totally new bank management.