Melted gold

In the future, Ramon de Ocampo might have a better crack at the Philippine presidency than his father, Asian Institute of Management president Roberto de Ocampo, ever did.

You see, the younger Mr. De Ocampo is a New York-based actor who will be in town for three weeks to perform in a play that has won an off-Broadway or Obic award.

The older Mr. De Ocampo, who was once named Euromoney magazine’s "Best Finance Minister of the Year" globally, can only sing and play the guitar.

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Here’s an interesting way to promote food outlets in hotels. One hotel in the Makati central business district is giving away privilege cards equivalent to a flat rate of 20 percent of the total bill in any outlet.

The standard practice is to sell the privilege card, which entitles the user to a 50-percent discount; a meal for three, a 33-1/3 discount and so on.

The idea behind the privilege card is to encourage increased patronage by corporate clients (to make up for the cost of acquiring the card). In the case of the hotel giving away the cards, it goes without saying that these cards are issued only to those who are regular customers.

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Bank notes 1: Since 2000, United Coconut Planters Bank has had three chairmen/chief executive officers. Then President Ramos-appointee Tirso Antiporda Jr. gave way to then President Estrada-appointee Jeronimo Kilayko, who, in turn, gave way to President Macapagal-Arroyo-appointee Edward Go.

Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho is expected to announce Eddie Go’s replacement within the month even as Cocobank has submitted to Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura its long-term battle plan to get back into the industry’s top five loop.

Basically, the plan calls for massive investment in technology that would make machines the bank’s first line of defense, handling no-brainer bank transactions except deposit taking in its branch network.

The second line of defense are bank personnel, who will be given more executive powers.

For the plan to work, the bank will be using the P20 billion in additional funds that government will pump into the bank.

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Bank notes 2: These days, the bulk of gold being sold to the Bangko Sentral comes to its Quezon City office – basically from Meycauyan, Bulacan, where pawnshop gold is melted.

Gold purchases from Diwalwal panners have tapered off, in part because the road to the Bangko Sentral-Tagum office is, uh, unhealthy.