If you think the fight for Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) between the Lopez family and the government is over, think again. After the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) raised its shareholding in the power distributor last month to 27 percent from 22 percent?by accumulating about 48 million shares from the stock market?it is now the turn of its sister pension fund, the Social Security System (SSS), to do the same.

Our sources revealed that the SSS has received ?marching orders? to accumulate Meralco shares from the market to boost its relatively small stake of 43.8 million shares, about 3.9 percent, at the end of the first half of the year.

Meralco?s shares have so far recovered only half of the value they lost since the GSIS takeover attempt a few months ago, so the stock still presents a good trading opportunity.

The state-administered private pension fund resisted pressure to take a more active part in the takeover attempt under the leadership of its former chief executive, Corazon de la Paz, but it remains to be seen how newly installed Romulo Neri will fare.

We were told, however, that the SSS move was not meant to be just a mere investment but also to boost the government?s overall stake. If so, round two in the slugfest would not be too far away. Daxim L. Lucas

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COO as basketball bully

It helps a lot to be the COO (child of owner) when you?re playing for a corporate basketball team.

In an ongoing inter-bank tournament, this COO is the automatic MVP (most valuable player) who comes in and out of the ball game as he pleases. During one game, he overruled the coach?s decision to put him on the bench simply by ordering another teammate to sit down, thus allowing him to play, our courtside sources say.

What has also drawn so much attention from bewildered spectators is not just his penchant for flexing physical muscle, but leveraging his dad?s fortunes, too. COO has no qualms about trash talking and pointing his finger at other players? faces during heated games.

In one chilling instance, he was overheard telling an opponent: ?Bilhin ko buhay mo, eh!? [?I could buy your life!?] Needless to say, even the referees are scared the hell out of him. After all, COO?s father is a Chinese-Filipino tycoon, on Forbes? list of the richest men in the Philippines.

Observers are left wishing that someone would teach this COO about manners and sportsmanship. But then again, who would dare? Doris C. Dumlao

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Where?s the oil subsidy?

This high-profile Cabinet member, who is always eager to defend President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s deals and policies, raised eyebrows and elicited private chuckles at a recent economic managers? meeting about oil price developments.

As skyrocketing oil prices have been a major culprit behind the surge in consumer prices, experts from the country?s biggest refiner and retailer Petron Corp. were invited to provide an industry overview on pump price trends.

The discussion soon after veered toward the issue of petroleum subsidies, and the experts cited some governments around the region which subsidize prices, among them Indonesia, Malaysia and India.

?What about the Philippines?? this Cabinet official suddenly asked. An awkward silence immediately fell on the room since everyone knew that the Philippines had not subsidized fuel prices in almost 20 years. Everyone, that is, except Mr. Secretary.

What was more shocking for the assembled audience and technical staff is that Mr. Secretary has actually been a member of the government?s economic management team for some time now. But then again, he was never really famous for his intellectual attributes, even in his former career. Doris C. Dumlao

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Where?s the Spirit?

Many observers were left scratching their heads when ?juice magnate? Alfredo Yao?who made his fortune with Zest-O juice drinks?bought the airline Asian Spirit for a cool P1 billion at a time the global airline industry was just about to go into a collective tailspin.

That tailspin has now turned into a nosedive for Asian Spirit, after its British Aerospace 146 jets (it had three) were taken back by their lessors for alleged missed lease payments, airline industry insiders say. A call to the airline?s booking offices confirmed that Asian Spirit no longer operates the aircraft type, which it had boasted of in earlier marketing efforts as the very same kind of aircraft used by Queen Elizabeth II.

With the loss of its BAe 146 aircraft, Asian Spirit is left operating decades-old De Havilland Dash 7 and the Japanese-made YS-11?all turboprop-powered.

The airline is set to acquire five Xian MA60 from?you guessed it?China to replenish its fleet.

The MA60 is a reengineered civilian version of Russian Antonov military transport planes. Having been made in Chinese factories, it?s a good bet that these aircraft are cheaper to acquire. The only problem is that the MA60 has not yet been granted an airworthiness certification by the safety-conscious US Federal Aviation Administration or its UK counterpart. Daxim L. Lucas

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Foiled

Former chief presidential legal Counsel Sergio Apostol was elected to the board of Union Bank of the Philippines last week, joining Social Security System president Romulo Neri as representative of the SSS on the Aboitiz-controlled bank?s board. Thus ends the attempt by an influential Chinese-Filipino banker-tycoon to have President Arroyo appoint Apostol, sometimes referred to as ?Madam Wetness,? to a plum post in one of the country?s financial industry regulatory bodies. Daxim L. Lucas

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Influential small player

Don?t look now, but the debate on the future of digital TV in this country may be determined not by the industry giants but by a small broadcast outfit.

GEM-TV, which is operated by the broadcast division of the Iglesia ni Cristo church, has been doing digital TV test broadcast and propagation, using a controversial and little-used Japanese standard known as ISDB-T (terrestrial).

Industry wags said that such a move by the influential church group could sway the technical working group of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which has yet to pick a digital TV standard since it started evaluating the contenders in 2006.

To help matters for ISDB-T, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is offering ?soft loans? to facilitate the Philippines? transition from analog to digital programming by 2015.

What is the NTC to do? Its technical working group has so far limited its comments to saying that it will choose ?the best standard? for the Philippines.

If the NTC gets swayed (and the big players are already worried about its leanings), the Philippines will be only one of three countries in the world to adopt ISDB besides Japan and Brazil, in a world dominated by European and US broadcast standards. Riza Olchondra