Love letters

Did you know 1: Mercy Tuason of the Forbes Park Tuasons has probably one of the worst looking fingers in her social set.

You see, Ms. Tuason’s fingers have been burnt so many times since the start of the year when she began to manually glue fabric and paper flowers to native bags that she sells to friends and friends of friends.

All the proceeds from her bags – they’re cheaper than similar made-in-Korea bags found in the Greenhills flea market and you can choose the colors and flowers you like – go to support men and women who have the vocation but can’t afford the cost of training to become priests and nuns.

And yes, this is a one-woman operation and will stay as one since this is Ms. Tuason’s way of giving of herself to others.

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Did you know 2: There’s talk ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. chairman and chief executive officer Eugenio Lopez III paid P1 billion for the television rights of chinovela, "Meteor Garden-2", which was first aired in Taiwan more than two years ago.

Then again, Gabby Lopez hope to recoup the investment by aggressively selling advertising space in the now seven days a week soap opera.

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Did you know 3: Quedan & Rural Credit Guarantee Corp. has probably one of the most competitive micro-financing lending rates in town. The interest rate is 1.5 percent per month for a maximum of six months.

These character loans (read: no collateral) have a ceiling of P15,000 for those who do not have business permits (such as ambulant vendors) and P50,000 for those who have business permits (such as vendors selling inside a public market).

Quedancor is headed by Nelson Buenaflor, who reports to Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr.

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BusinessWorld publisher/editor Leticia Locsin has come up with a monograph of some of the love letters written to her by her husband, the late Raul Locsin.

In a short preface, Ms. Locsin writes, "…it was his wish to have these read by friends he respected and whose values he shared and regarded highly… His reason for wanting to bare these thoughts now was his concern about the swirl of malicious rumors and untruths he expected would surface after his death."

Here is a sample:

"I sometimes wonder what my life would have been

had the world been kinder and made us find each other

before our mistakes had bound us to our pasts.

I know and I am sure that I would have recognized

Your face in the moving crowd and you would have looked

Across the towering heads to meet my eyes

And feel at that moment the inevitability of our oneness.

You were made only for me and I for you, Leticia,

And had we not met we would have grown small and stood

As shriveled shadows on the greatness of the Earth."