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Victor Villavicencio’s newest concept restaurant called Something Fishy is doing such great business that it has expanded its Eastwood seating capacity to 600.

Vic Vic Villavicencio, who continues to work closely with his creditor-banks, is surprisingly reticent about this venture.

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China is said to be eyeing the lucrative call center business, perhaps the sunniest of all industries right now in the Philippines with entry-level salaries of between P12,000 and P15,000 a month.

The dollar equivalent of P15,000 a month is less than what an American company would have to pay a similar employer in a week.

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Bank notes 1: A basketball dream team – including the sixth man – among high-level bankers currently in government would have the New York investment banking gang of Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho, Energy Secretary Vincent Perez Jr., Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas II, Development Bank of the Philippines president and chief executive officer Simon Paterno, and Philippine National Bank president and chief executive officer Lorenzo Tan plus Trade and Investment Development Corp. of the Philippines president and chief executive officer Joel Valdes.

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Bank notes 2: Shocking as it may sound, the computer file of any outstanding housing loan in this financial institution can reflect full payment – the price to the right parties is 10 percent of the outstanding loan amount.

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Bank notes 3: Internally, it’s called the "Governance Forum Productivity Award," Ninety percent of the bank’s workforce signed the document with 15 so-called whereas clauses last month right smack into school registration time.

Those who did not sign didn’t get paid their share of the P200 million allocated for the project and they have expressed their grievances in a letter dated June 3 to the board.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission launched yesterday afternoon an information campaign targeting would-be investors of pseudo-investment companies.

Here are two helpful tips given by complaints and investigation division officer-in-charge Eloisa Gan:

• Be suspicious if the promised interest rate is unusually high. Most banks currently pay a one-percent interest rate per year on savings deposits. Multinational Telecommunications president Rosario Baladjay offered a four percent to seven-percent monthly interest rate. Other companies have offered interest rates as high as 20 percent a month.

• Check with the SEC’s corporate finance department if the company has been given a secondary license to sell securities or investment securities. Remember that a secondary license could be easily faked (read, purchased from C.M. Recto).