By the staff
On the last night of his state visit here, President Jose Ramos Horta of East Timor had an unlikely dinner guest in the person of the tobacco and beer magnate Lucio Tan.
During a courtesy call earlier in the day, Tan extended a dinner invitation to President Ramos-Horta, but the tycoon ended up being the latter?s guest, instead. The East Timorese leader politely told Tan he had already made prior arrangements with a small group of Filipino friends who were to treat him to ?where locals dine.?
That night, regular patrons of Harbor View restaurant beside the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park were surprised and honored that they were dining in the company of President Ramos-Horta, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno and others on the margins of celebrity.
But there were more VIPS to come when Tan and his associates arrived. During the two-hour dinner, Tan?who likes surprising his guests with trivia about them (in English, no less!)?impressed President Ramos-Horta as he rattled off facts and figures about the latter?s tiny island-state.
Tan was only too happy to have broken bread with the resistance-leader-turned-Nobel-laureate and head of state.
At one point, he was even heard telling President Ramos-Horta about the possibility of bringing in a Filipino business delegation to East Timor. As the two leaders parted, Tan gifted Ramos-Horta with a copy of his coffee table book published by the Xinhua Publishing House.
Don?t be surprised if Tan?s Asia Brewery or Fortune Tobacco becomes East Timor?s biggest GDP contributor in the coming years. Daxim L. Lucas
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?Selling? the Republic
After months of wooing hesitant candidates and vetting unfavorable ones, the government?s Investor Relations Office (IRO) finally has a new head in the person of Leo Herrera-Lim.
The central bank?which foots the sometimes expensive bill for the government?s investor-flirting efforts?hired Herrera-Lim from the Department of Foreign Affairs, where he served as consul general under Edgardo Espiritu, the ambassador to the Court of St. James (interestingly, Espiritu was once rumored to be interested in the top post at the central bank).
The IRO?s main mandate is to ?sell? the Philippines and serve as a one-stop shop for investors (a.k.a creditors, actually) who want to feel more comfortable about plunking their money into the Philippines.
Herrera-Lim will try to fill the large shoes left by IRO?s founding chief, Corazon Guidote, and her successor, Rene Pizarro, whose contract was not renewed.
On the upside, the IRO will get a much-needed leadership boost at a time when the Republic looks set to resume foreign borrowings. On the downside, Herrera-Lim is not very well known among international (and even local) investors.
Given the ongoing global economic turmoil, coupled with the country?s own peculiar difficulties, Herrera-Lim?s hands will be full to overflowing. Daxim L. Lucas
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Lustful messenger who knows too much
Talk within the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), nowadays is about this lustful messenger and his alleged assault on a pregnant janitress last summer. It was not, apparently, not the first incident implicating this messenger but probably the first backed by a formal complaint.
Some concerned BSP staffers complain he?s being treated with kid gloves. Surely, the case is undergoing internal investigation as part of the quintessential ?due process,? yet other naughty staffers can?t help but speculate: He must know too many juicy secrets (remember, he?s a messenger) so it?s a tall order to even get him suspended.
It?s a live case, not an urban legend. The traumatized victim, who no longer works at the central bank these days, sued the messenger at the Office of the Ombudsman last month, citing ?disgraceful and immoral conduct.? The case has even reached Malacańang and one assistant executive secretary has written the BSP to follow up on the action taken on the complaint of ?acts of lasciviousness.? Doris C. Dumlao
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Dutch delight
Dutch financial giant ING must have been so delighted with its Philippine business and pool of talents that it always plucks its Filipino chief country managers out to take on regional responsibilities.
ING Philippine country manager Manuel Salak III is moving to Singapore this September to become the managing director and head of wholesale banking clients in the region. His predecessor, Renato de Guzman, is now CEO of ING Private Banking Asia Pacific, which, under the leadership of our compatriot, has become among the top 10 private banks in the world?s fastest growing region. Kudos to our cosmopolitan bankers!
Salak will be succeeded by veteran Filipina banker Consuelo Garcia, who makes history as the first female country manager of ING since it acquired a full branch license during the foreign bank liberalization in 1994. Doris C. Dumlao
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Soaring ambitions
Newly formed carrier Spirit of Manila Airlines Co. (SMAC) seems bolder than initially reported. Despite the difficult operating environment faced by the global airline industry, SMAC is quietly laying down plans to acquire a second-hand Boeing 737-300 and (hang on to your seats, ladies and gentlemen) a Boeing 747-400, on top of its Boeing 767-300ER.
The airline?owned by a secretive Filipino principal who used to be with another carrier?will use the 737 for regional operations starting with Taipei next month, while the 767 will be used for flights to Bahrain, which it hopes will be a cheaper alternative for overseas Filipino workers. The airline plans to move up to the 747 in a couple of years.
An airline official told Biz Buzz that SMAC was not buying the ?aging? 767 from Israeli carrier El Al, but would instead lease it from a Middle Eastern firm called Spirit Leasing. ?Just imagine flying to Bahrain using a former Israeli airplane,? he said. ?Magkaaway ?yun.? [?They are at odds.?]
SMAC also plans to initiate flights to Macau before the end of the year. Incidentally, it plans to inaugurate its Taipei flight before the end of next month from its planned hub at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, north of Manila?calculated to coincide with the Sept. 28 birthday of the former president, hopefully making the current President happy about it. Daxim L. Lucas
