Who’s paying?

Yesterday’s board meeting of the Clark Development Corp. was cancelled. There was no quorum.

You see, four CDC directors decided to keep fellow director Benny Ricafort company during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit in Mexico.

Since Mr. Ricafort is on official business, government is paying his bills. The other four are on their own.

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Day’s Inn Asia chairman Reynaldo Concepcion admits Cebu is the worst performer among the chain’s six hotels nationwide. Like any prudent businessman, Rene Concepcion has been cutting down on costs wherever he can as he waits for the good times to come back.

For Cebu, the good times are synonymous to the influx of foreign tourists, which has dropped by half from last year’s level. (It doesn’t help that some insurance companies refuse to cover foreigners visiting the country).

To stay competitive, most hotels have dropped their rates and are looking at the local market. A room at a high-end hotel can now be had for P1,000 a night – but that might not be enough of a come-on for local tourists from Metro Manila who will have to spend an additional P5,000 for his plane ticket.

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Right now, there are two Land Transportation Office kiosks that can process the renewal of your driver’s license while you wait. A third kiosk will be operational by the end of the year.

For the first kiosk located inside the Farmers Plaza in Cubao, the LTO got a concessional lease rate from the Araneta Group.

For the second kiosk located inside SM-Pampanga, the LTO got even luckier. It got the space for free. You see, President Macapagal-Arroyo personally asked SM founder Henry Sy for the space.

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Bank notes 1: Government Service Insurance System president Winston Garcia has been busy indeed.

With the pension fund’s computerization in place (a project of his predecessor, Federico Pascual), Mr. Garcia has been launching electronic products left and right. The latest one – to be introduced this December – is branded "Electronic Wallet".

Basically, the card is a combination ID and ATM. This means a government employee will no longer need to go to a GSIS office to get his/her check for a salary loan or to pay his/her housing loan. These deposit/withdrawal transactions can be done through the ATM.

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Bank notes 2: Former Citibanker Julia Theresa Santiago-Yap has a new cause.

Elected for a two-year term as president of the Philippine Internet Services Organization, Yale-educated Jojie Santiago Yap has decided to do battle with Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., which is headed by Wharton-educated Manuel Pangilinan.

Working through bar topnotcher Aquilino Pimentel III, PISO has filed a four-count complaint against PLDT with National Telecommunications Commission acting commissioner Armi Jane Borje. These are:

• "PLDT’s pricing of its E1/E2 lines is unreasonable and discriminatory;

• "PLDT is involved in predatory pricing in order to eliminate the competition;

• "PLDT has delayed acting on the request of PISO members for access to its DSL infrastructure, which delay is tantamount to denial of access; and

• "PLDT has delayed acting on the request of PISO members for access to its VIBE service or domestic dial-up Internet services, which delay is tantamount to denial of access."

The way Ms. Santiago-Yap sees it, a favorable decision by NTC would result in increased revenues for PISO members and an asterisk or loose change loss for PLDT.

Manny Pangilinan obviously doesn’t agree.