If there was only peace in the family

Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office chaired by Ma. Livia de Leon now requires all visitors to go through a two-step medical check-up before being issued a visitor’s ID by the lobby guard.

The first step is to have a thermometer – which is hopefully disinfected after every use – placed in the visitor’s ear to check his/her temperature.

The second step is for the visitor – not a nurse or a doctor, mind you – to check the appropriate box in answering three questions (you know, whether you have recently visited China or Hong Kong or whether you have come in close contact with any person known to be infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).

As everybody knows, Honey Girl de Leon is the sister of former Ilocos Sur Governor Luis Singson.

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George Siy decided to explain his side of the family feud Tuesday night before members of the Anvil Executive Club, which is made up of young Chinese-Filipinos who occupy senior corporate positions.

As everybody, Mr. Siy is not talking to his sister, Bernadine Siy (and vice versa) over who should manage which family business. Not surprisingly, both siblings are effective managers of the businesses either left by their late father, Ramon Siy, or put up using the money their father left behind.

Then again, that multimillion fortune could be growing at a faster rate if there was peace and unity within the family.

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Since quietly coming on board at the start of the month, Avon Cosmetics Inc. president Perry Mogar has been rushing from one meeting to another.

Mr. Mogar isn’t new to the business. He used to run the direct selling operation of competitor, The House of Sara Lee, after coming home from a long stint in Indonesia (pushing Gilette blades).

Besides, Mr. Mogar has ready access to his predecessor, Malu Dybuncio, who has been moved up as executive director for regional business development, as well as to Ms. Dybuncio’s predecessor, Jose Marie Franco, who remains area head vice-president for southern Asia.

Both Ms. Dybuncio and Mr. Franco are still based in the Philippines.

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Bank notes: There’s talk, of course, the rehabilitation of United Coconut Planters Bank might convert the sequestered but still technically considered privately-owned (by coconut farmers and other investors like San Miguel Corp. chairman and chief executive officer Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.) domestic universal bank into a government bank.

Under such a scenario, the 40-year Cocobank would become something like the current Philippine National Bank, which government jointly owns with Lucio Tan and which will be eventually privatized.

Under such a scenario, the normal one-year proscription period imposed on the senior officers of certain government agencies supervising the banking system would not apply, should there be changes at the top.