It was all hush hush when it happened a few weeks ago, but word does get around… and the word is this: The grandson of a late tycoon (who passed away not too long ago) was caught during a kleptomania spree in a hotel up north.
This scion of a Chinoy business family whose net worth is estimated to top $1 billion was caught by the staffers of the hotel while trying to spirit away “artwork, customers’ handbags (the high-end branded variety, of course) and other goodies,” according to a Biz Buzz source.
The scene of the crime is a hotel in Ilocus Sur that’s famous for having paintings hanging all around the place, including some very expensive ones right inside the guest rooms. (Our source tells us that some of the pricier paintings that the scion tried to steal were a Luna, an Amorsolo and a Luz, all very important and valuable ones in the art world).
But who would think the man would be the klepto-type, right? After all, he has a surname that could easily afford to own a bank or a publishing firm or a pharmaceutical company or even his own hotel (wink wink). He has his own food industry business interests that are doing well, to boot. And he did arrive at the hotel in a Ferrari, we might add.
This scion also had his personal bodyguards with him who, we are told, did not put up a fight when the group was accosted by the hotel’s security for what their ward was suspected of doing. Thank goodness that no one was eager to draw his firearm because the hotel is owned by a powerful Ilocos politico-warlord who is known to be rather unforgiving with those who cross him.
And too bad the interiors of that Ferrari supercar are somewhat cramped. He must have had no place to hide his loot as the security personnel readily found the missing belongings of other hotel guests just sitting there on the car’s passenger seat.
In any case, word from people at the scene was that this scion was probably “under the influence” of some prohibited substance when he was arrested and he was promptly sent to the city jail where he was detained (one simply cannot talk oneself out of a sticky situation like that, especially with the owner-politico-warlord very upset over the incident).
But all’s well that ends well, and the scion was eventually released after a week in the city jail, most likely after making a very costly settlement with the hotel owner. Daxim L. Lucas
Delisting Republic
Cement-maker Republic Cement and Building Materials Inc., formerly Lafarge Republic Inc. (LRI), is bowing out of the Philippine Stock Exchange by the ides of March.
Republic—now 99.09-percent owned by the consortium of conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) and British firm CRH Holdings—plans to seek voluntary delisting from the exchange after completing a voluntary tender offer to minority shareholders. The proposed delisting is estimated to take place on March 15, Republic said in a notice to shareholders on Tuesday. Trading on shares of Republic has been suspended since Sept. 15.
The AEV-CRH partnership in Republic has been structured in such a way that there will be two symbiotic companies holding the assets. AEV will have majority of the holding company that owns the land, quarry and mine and all other assets covered by the constitutional restriction on foreign ownership, while other manufacturing and sales/marketing vehicles will be folded into another holding firm to be majority controlled by CRH.
Last year, Lafarge finalized the deal to sell 100 percent of its Philippine cement unit (LRI) to the CRH-AEV consortium for P59.7 billion. The divestment was as a consequence of the global merger between cement giants Lafarge and Holcim.
For its part, AEV’s investment in cement manufacturing is seen in line with its foray into infrastructure as the fifth leg of its core businesses after power, banking, food and property development. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla
RVO’s new recruit
Spa veteran Marjorie Lopingco, former president of the Spa Association of the Philippines and spa consultant for Shangri-La Hotels Philippines, has joined businessman Roberto V. Ongpin’s newest baby “Aegle Wellness Center.” This is a P350-million wellness hub with world-class diagnostic facilities and medical team located in leisure clubs The City Club in Makati and island-resort Balesin Island Club.
Lopingco has been appointed Aegle’s director of corporate wellness programs, henceforth assigned to work with organizations in designing wellness programs for employees that aim to prevent chronic diseases, maintain health and well-being, keep health costs down and boost employee engagement.
This wellness guru studied balneotherapy, a natural approach to the treatment of disease using mineral-rich waters, in the Czech Republic and France and afterwards pursued a master’s degree in Wellness from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia. She is also founder and president of BHY Corp., a Philippine spa pioneer that owns and operates several spa facilities in Metro Manila.
For its part, Aegle pitches an integrated approach to wellness based on scientific and medical diagnostics for early detection, prevention and correction of age-related imbalances. Four foundations of wellness promoted are natural detoxification, weight management, aging medicine and holistic health. Aegle’s medical team is led by Claude Chauchard, world-renowned anti-aging and preventive medicine specialist, and Ben Valdecañas, an authority in the field of sports and regenerative medicine. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla
Property sector jitters
SOMETHING as hot as the country’s property sector really has no choice but to cool down eventually. And cooling down it is, with investors now jittery over whether an asset bubble is indeed forming in the sector that has seen spectacular growth over the past few years.
One only needs to look at the frenzied construction activity to get evidence of robust activity. For Prof. Enrique Soriano of the Ateneo Graduate School of Business, while a slowdown in the local property sector is imminent, there would still be pockets of growth. Not all developers will feel the reduced activity the same way.
“If there is a slowdown, then the last to be affected are those who are offering more than just residential projects. I’m referring to developers like Ayala and Megaworld that build massive mixed-use communities. They actually have the ready market for their residential offerings within their communities,” he explained.
Ayala Land, for example, has aggressively expanded its mixed-use footprint in massive scale. Its Alviera project in Pampanga, Nuvali in Sta. Rosa, Laguna and Arca South in Bicutan, Taguig, all have expansive offerings that entice potential residential customers.
Likewise, Megaworld’s two developments in Metro Manila boast sufficient population that they consider to be a ready market for their residential projects. McKinley Hill, for example, has 4,000 condo units. There are 80,000 BPO workers that include expats in the area. This means, if the company sells to even just 10 percent of the aforementioned population, then there is even a shortage of another 4,000 units.
The same can’t be said of the other property developers, however. Perhaps look at the dark but completed condominium developments to find out who’s not faring so well these days. Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Visa woes for poet
WOULD you pay $10,000 for a book that was published not even a decade ago? Well, someone did, and the book came in a set of three volumes.
The trilogy titled “Pentasi B” is a collection of a Filipino’s works fusing words and images. It fetched a total of $30,000 in an auction in Los Angeles in the United States in 2012 and the proceeds were donated to support the education of poor but talented students in the Philippines.
The author is a Filipino — among 18 poets and academics from around the world who will be featured in the 39th World Festival of Poetry. Epitacio R. Tongohan, a medical doctor from Tanay, Rizal, is better known among poets as Doc PenPen B. Takipsilim.
The names—both of birth and pen—may be drawing a blank for most of you, dear readers. Unfortunately, the same is most likely for the consuls at the Italian embassy as Tongohan has yet to secure a visa as of this writing.
The annual festival (slated Feb. 19-20) will be held this time in the city of Taranto. The Pablo Neruda Cultural Association of Italy is hosting, in partnership with the Turkey-based Kibatek Foundation or Cyprus-Balkans- Eurasia Foundation of Turkish Literature.
In previous festivals held in other countries, Tongohan has been recognized as “Father of Visual Poetry.” He was honored thus for the first time in Canada in 2013 and again —GörselS,iirBabasi in Turkish—in Turkey last year. This year, the Italians are set to extol Doc PenPen as “Il padre della poesia visuale.”
Tongohan says his visual poems mystify even the most renowned poetry associations all over the globe. He describes his art as “of ambiguous interpretations that gave voice to wounded hearts, bewildered minds and spirits weakened by the harshness of life.”
In Taranto, he hopes to join poets and dignitaries from Canada, Holland, Turkey, Bosnia, United States, Romania, Cyprus, Greece and Azerbaijan. Well, we hope the consul at the embassy reads rhymes. Ronnel W. Domingo
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