One son, lots of fathers

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. has lately had a lot of fathers. After all, he has called himself an adopted son of every city he has visited in the last few months.

Such provincial visits – almost every Friday and Saturday – are not cheap. Cito Lorenzo travels with an entourage of experts from various DA-controlled agencies to whom he defers to when the hard questions start coming.

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There’s talk Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin will soon be releasing to the Department of Public Works and Highways at least half of the P7 billion the DPWH owes contractors.

Some of these contractors haven’t been paid for almost a year because, well, Emily Boncodin isn’t going to release what she doesn’t have.

Worse, the contractors don’t have any takers for their government receivables, even at a large discount.

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Ayala Land, Inc. chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala remains conservative about the prospects of the property market but those who can get hold of ALI’s first semester figures might want to zero in at the housing component, which has been growing at a faster rate than rentals and mall development.

Hey, even Megaworld Corp. chairman Andrew Tan can’t be happier with the numbers he’s seeing in the mid-range housing market – this is the market where families which regularly receive dollar remittances are the darling buyers of the month.

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Did you know 1: La Suerte Cigar & Cigarette Factory, which is owned by the Cheng family, is said to now have a 10-percent market share, eating into the consumer base of both its former partner, Philip Morris Phils., and the Lucio Tan controlled Fortune Tobacco Co.

That market share is significant, considering that La Suerte has the highest margins in the industry even though it has positioned its products at the low-end C-D markets.

In part, this could be traced to an indefinite temporary restraining order which, uh, prevents its upward tax reclassification by Internal Revenue Commissioner Guillermo Parayno Jr. In part, this could be traced to truly superior products.

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Did you know 2: These days, the best way to start a conversation going with Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. major stockholder Alfonso Yuchengco is to ask about the 20th general meeting of the Asian Bankers Association in Manila this October.

Al Yuchengco is ABA chairman.

Yes, the venue of the three-day conference which will be attended by 200 bankers from all over the region (including central bankers and finance ministers) remains unchanged. No, the conference’s theme will not be changed. The theme remains, "Challenges and Competition in a Globalization Market."