Overkill

Have you noticed that Cabinet Secretaries carry two cellphones at all times?

The unwieldy and ugly one is government issue. (That's the one that stays with the government office, whoever heads it.)

The other cellphone – usually the latest, most expensive model – is a personal one.

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While Lucio Tan’s Fortune Tobacco has not been looking, there’s a draft bill that will be introduced in Congress which would double the tax on cigarettes. Of Mr. Tan’s many businesses, Fortune is the most profitable (and also one of the oldest).

Taxing a "vice" product is, of course, not expected to raise as much howl as taxing text messaging – and more profitable.

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Remember that Uniwide property in Quezon City where a seven-story building would have been put up?

Well, construction will push through after all with a supermarket on the ground floor and a department store on the second floor – not by Uniwide founder Jimmy Gaw or his son-in-law and current National Food Authority administrator Arthur Yap).

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My, my. Securities and Exchange Commission director for compliance and enforcement Jose Tomas Syquia intends to be even busier this year. Example? He intends to bring to court companies which have failed to meet SEC’s reportorial requirements.

The way Tommy Syquia sees it, SEC-imposed penalties have proven ineffective. Some companies prefer to pay the fines that file their annual financial statements of condition.

The way some companies see it, Mr. Syquia has better things to do than force non-listed companies to publicly reveal information that should only be known to its stockholders.

Uhm, Mr. Syquia is starting with the small rather than the big companies.

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Bank notes 1: Development Bank of the Philippines will celebrate its anniversary this Jan. 15, the only time President Macapagal-Arroyo is available.

It’s probably coincidental that Dina Lomongo-Paterno, the wife of bank president Simon Paterno, is hosting a lunch at their home for women columnists on the same day.

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Bank notes 2: There’s been a hitch in a high-level jump from one bank to bank. You see, the executive being pirated is said to want the concurrent position of chairman and president of a bank subsidiary – for faster decision-making, you understand.

While his padrino has no problems with that, the board of the mother company has balked at the idea. From the board’s point of view, concentrating that much power reduces transparency.