IN THE WAKE OF Tropical Storm Ondoy’s devastation, many companies, big and small, rushed to lend a helping hand to relief efforts for affected communities. Most of them extended assistance in line with their core businesses (e.g., PAL shipped relief goods for free, and mobile phone firms waived transfer fees for e-money donations).

For sure, there was no generosity contest and no one was keeping score. But for sheer scale and audacity, it is difficult to top the assistance extended by the San Miguel-Petron tandem.

As soon as the rains subsided, San Miguel dispatched two of its helicopters to assist in rescue operations (a much better use than lending them to politicians’ frequent provincial sorties). Meanwhile, San Miguel president Ramon Ang—in his inimitable, jaw-dropping style—issued a blanket offer to buy as many as 50 rubber boats for the rescue effort from anyone willing to sell them to him. Last we heard, only one seller came forward with four units, since rubber boats are apparently a scarce commodity nowadays.

In terms of sheer volume, however, Petron takes the relief effort cake. The country’s largest petroleum distributor and refiner donated 10 container vans full of instant noodles, translating to—hold your breath—about a million noodle packets. That’s roughly 10 meals for the estimated 100,000 evacuees housed in 200 evacuation centers around Metro Manila.

Of course, the act of procuring a million instant noodle packets created an artificial shortage of the “monosodium glutamate soup” so beloved by many people, now faced with empty supermarket shelves. Daxim L. Lucas

Speaking of Petron ...

PETRON’S CORPORATE mobile phone accounts for executives were recently switched in bulk from Smart Communications to Globe Telecom, and many naughty minds don’t think it’s due to the latter’s better Blackberry packages.

Some think the shift is a spillover of the increasingly overt rivalry between business titans Ramon S. Ang (who chairs Petron) and Manuel V. Pangilinan of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.

But because San Miguel Corp. has itself entered the competitive telecommunication business, could this mean that Petron’s mobile phones will switch to Liberty Telecoms once the Globe accounts’ two-year lock-in periods expire? Doris C. Dumlao

Kapitan’s son first to go

THE TURBULENCE at Philippine Airlines (PAL) has not spared John Tan, one of the sons of PAL owner Lucio Tan, who had to give up two concurrent VP posts “to give management a free hand” in rehabilitating the financially hobbled flag carrier, according to our sources.

The younger Tan, who used to be vice president for operations and of the airline’s network management and technical services department, lost his twin posts as part of the airline’s cost-cutting and “right-sizing” measures. He joined several VPs and managers who availed themselves of PAL’s early retirement program, made necessary, in part, by the global airline industry slump.

The airline’s stakeholders, of course, are holding up the taipan’s pink-slipped son as an example to reverse perception that the rank-and-file personnel are being singled out as part of the cost-cutting measures. The message is: There are no sacred cows.

Before joining PAL, Tan, 41, was a long-time VP of Landcom, his father’s real estate firm whose vast landholdings are currently being developed in partnership with Eton Properties Phils.

With the demise of his PAL career, the younger Tan is now left with the prospect of a directorship in publicly listed Philippine National Bank (PNB) to succeed Carmen Huang who, in turn, has chosen to focus on her role as executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Kapitan-led bank. Daxim L. Lucas

No more gambling

THE PHILIPPINES’ richest man, Henry Sy, is now the country’s dominant player in three businesses—retailing, shopping mall development and banking.

But there is one business that the SM group wants to phase out despite promising prospects.

Eldest daughter Teresita Sy-Coson confirmed in a recent chat that the family has long been planning to veer away from the gaming (read: Gambling) business. The plan, she says, is to pare down and eventually divest all interests related to this.

Some say this aversion is heavily influenced by matriarch Felicidad Tan-Sy, a devout Catholic, while others say it’s due to “Big Boy” or Henry Sy Jr. turning more spiritual. For whatever reason, the family now wants to focus on wealth creation anchored on wholesome core businesses. Any divestment will be no big deal for the group as the gaming interest is but a tiny portion of the SM empire.

After giving up in favor of Belle Corp. its Premium Leisure and Amusement Inc. (PLAI), which has a license to undertake casino projects in the future Pagcor City in Manila Bay, the next divestment is thus expected to be its minority interest in Leisure and Resorts World Corp. (LR), which owns professional bingo gaming pioneer Bingo Bonanza Corp. (and is also widely expected to be part of Belle’s venture in Pagcor City).

But SM’s divestment is also an opportunity for Belle to fulfill its dream of expanding into the gaming business in a big way. According to Belle vice chair Willy Ocier, his group will aggressively bid for whatever gaming interests the SM group will give up. Doris C. Dumlao