Absent on his first day of work

Bank notes 1: Here’s one advantage of being with branches in a government financial institution.

Not one member of the branch network was, uh, selected to be part of the 100-man delegation that was bused to Villamor Airbase yesterday afternoon to greet President Macapagal-Arroyo, who arrived from Brunei. That was strictly head office staff.

In a way, that delegation – as well as other similarly numbered groups from other government agencies – just kicked off Civil Service Month.

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Bank notes 2: There’s talk that a family engaged in both banking and cement is interested in entering into a negotiated sale with National Transmission Corp. president Alan Ortiz.

As everybody knows, there have been two failed biddings of Transco, with Singapore Power as the sole bidder.

Transco handles the crucial transmission highway that generating companies like the National Power Corp. uses to send electricity to distributing companies like Manila Electric Co.

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Bank notes 3: With no vacant seat in the board (read: none of the incumbent directors have taken the strong hint from the owners to resign), there’s now pressure for the chairman to step down.

Being a man of delicadeza, the chairman is expected to submit his resignation within the week, paving the way for his already-named successor.

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Bank notes 4: Yes, Citibank NA chief executive officer Jim Hunt is setting aside money to buy clearer tapes for the closed circuit cameras in all branches nationwide.

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Bank notes 5: United Coconut Planters Bank’s new chief operating officer Antonio Cailao was absent on his first day of work – Monday this week – which was when president Jose Querubin also officially welcomed to the bank Higinio Macadaeg Jr. as executive vice-president for credit and Cesar Rubio as executive vice-president for support services.

Tony Cailao, however, did manage to find the UCPB head office the next day.

AS COO, Mr. Cailao will head the so-called good bank or profit centers. These are corporate banking, which will be headed by Andrew Alcid (who joined the bank upon the invitation of fellow Citibanker and now Philippine National Bank president Lorenzo Tan); consumer banking; and treasury.

An outsider, still unnamed, will head consumer banking.

Joey Macadaeg will run the day-to-day operations of the so-called bad bank or the non-performing loans and foreclosed properties. This is where Jojo Querubin wants to spend most of his time in because, well, the bank has one of the highest levels of non-performing assets (that’s non-performing loans plus repossessed and other properties and other assets) in the industry.