Mistaken identity

Bank notes 1: Trade and Investment Development Corp. president and chief executive officer Joel Valdes is certainly not a newly married man. Nor is he 23 years old.

But he doesn’t mind being described as "good-looking" and "having a great body" by people who attended the recent wedding of actress Elizabeth Oropesa.

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Bank notes 2: So, JG Summit Capital Markets Corp. president Gabriel Singson didn’t attend yesterday’s testimonial lunch for Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura.

You see, Gabby Singson (most likely, traveling with his best friend, John Gokongwei Jr.) couldn’t reset his business schedule in Singapore. He’ll be back in town on Saturday.

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Bank notes 3: Chinatrust (Phils.) Commercial Bank Corp. president Joey Bermudez is hatching up a new product for his pet market, the small- and medium-sized enterprises, before the end of the year.

Under current banking laws, six percent of a bank’s loan portfolio should go to small businesses and two percent should go to medium businesses. Most banks, however, go around this policy by lending to government (through Treasury bills).

Right now, Chinatrust is one of two banks – the other one is United Coconut Planters Bank headed by Edward Go – which has a lay-away plan for overseas Filipino workers who want to put up a small business upon their return.

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The Office of the Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry has probably more Ivy League MBA graduates per square meter than any other place in government. The language in that office – from Wharton-educated Manuel Roxas II – is straight English (with an ever so slight American twang).

How Mar Roxas got some of the best and the brightest to work for government was downright easy. He talked to the parents who move in the same social circle as he does. (Read: so rich their faces normally don’t show up in the society pages.)

The pitch? Could the parents continue to subsidize their children in the lifestyle they are used to – over and above their government salary, of course – until 2004?

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Did you know 1: One of the easiest ways to get traveling papers to the United States is to go as an ethnic cook. This way, you don’t displace or compete with an American citizen for the same job when you get to the US.

There’s the added advantage that the American doing the interviewing for that precious US visa probably wouldn’t know the difference if calamansi were used instead of vinegar in that adobo recipe.

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Did you know 2: Local banks cannot be bothered with changing anything other than American dollars into pesos. Here’s the logic. There’s not enough volume involved (read: you can’t make that much money) in dealing with the Japanese yen, Italian lira or whatever.

For such transactions, tourists as well as locals who have access to such currencies have to deal with a money changer.