The highlight of the dinner, which was attended by all the other federation officers, was an informal poll on who the diners would elect as president when the federation holds its elections middle of March.
Then again, the Delgados could have gotten more out of Islacom. You see, their foreign partner, Deutsche Telecom, was willing to bring in as much as $128 million.
The Delgados, however, put so many restrictions and delayed negotiations until the German company couldnt come up with that kind of money anymore because, well, it began experiencing its own financial problems.
A joint project of the Philippine National Construction Co. and the Lopez controlled Manila North Tollways Corp., Lito Camacho has single-handedly been holding at bay those in government who want to declare a breach in contract.
This is not the first time Mr. Camacho has dealt with the Lopez group. As head of Deutsche Banks investment banking operations in the late 1990s, he was directly involved in the Lopez groups bidding and winning of the west zone concession of Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (yes, the one that wants to give back its concession to government).
His investment banking counterpart, JP Morgans Simon Paterno, advised the Ayala group in bidding for and winning the east zone concession of MWSS.
Mr. Paterno is currently president of the Development Bank of the Philippines, which is directly under the supervision of the Department of Finance.
He joins Edmund Sana, who has been taken out of the freezer to head operations; Jocelyn Bolante, who remains in charge of finance; and Cesar Drilon, who continues to head administration.
The appointment of Mr. Balisacan is seen as another move of former Lapanday chief executive officer Luiz Lorenzo Jr. to reorganize the Department of Agriculture into an agribusiness-oriented organization.