Back in town

Last Wednesday’s tour of the Security Plant had to be reset to this week because of a delay in the return flight of Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura. Paeng Buenaventura came home in time for the weekly meeting of the Monetary Board, which he chairs.

Just as well. The guys at the Security Plant headed by assistant governor Marcelo Siongco Jr. had more time to spruce up the place on its 25th anniversary month. Mr. Buenaventura is known to run his fingers on furniture to see if they are clean.

And, yes, Mr. Buenaventura will be handing over his two indispensible cell phones for safekeeping before the tour of the gold bars and paper currencies starts, just like everybody else.

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Also back in the country was Lucio Tan, who came to the monthly meeting of the Foundation for Upgrading the Standards of Education last Thursday straight from the airport. A baby of Mr. Tan (who is an unabashed sucker for anything educational), FUSE is headed by Salvador Escudero III who teased Mr. Tan about his peso-dollar prediction made early this year.

Mr. Tan didn’t looked amused that his prediction (P70 to the dollar by end-2003) is not just possible but probable.

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Did you know 1: Shoemart Department Store Inc., head Teresita Sy-Coson is piloting the sale of used books, both paperback and hard-bound. The new business line indirectly pits her against Socorro Ramos of this National Bookstore chain and directly against Visual Mix Inc. president Emmanuel Sison and his Book Sale chain.

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Did you know 2: There’s talk that Bulacan-based ice drop maker Milco is putting up a factory in the Clark Special Economic Zone that will make it the third largest producer of ice cream products in Luzon. Milco is owned by the family of Jose Hernandez Jr.

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Did you know 3: Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. is celebrating its 41st anniversary, longer than anybody in the bank except chairman George S. K. Ty and maybe Metrobank Foundation vice-chairman Elvira Ong-Chan. This year, as in many years past, the highlight of the celebration is the awarding ceremony of the foundation’s annual search for outstanding teachers.