Sacked

Oh, dear. Sto. Tomas Hospital president Hernando Veloso was asked to resign effective last Tuesday by the governing board chaired by Fr. Juan Ponce. That same day, Ofelia Archedar, O.P. was named to the post. Yes, she’s a nun under the Order of Preachers.

Supposedly, Mr. Veloso’s fall from grace centered around the recent purchase of a P75-million medical equipment.

No, the problem wasn’t because the hospital claimed tax exemption on the basis of its no longer-existent connection with University of Sto. Tomas. Rather, the problem was Mr. Veloso’s failure to provide the necessary staff training to operate and interpret the data produced by the machine.

* * *

Even as Ginebra San Miguel Inc. won the first round in court, Tanduay Distillers, Inc. has already gotten trademark approval from the Intellectual Property Office headed by executive director Emma Francisco for its second gin product called Ginebra Toro.

Tanduay’s first product, Ginebra Kapitan, also got IPO clearance before it was launched in May this year.

As everybody knows, Ginebra San Miguel has gotten last Friday a temporary restraining order against Tanduay’s production and distribution of Ginebra Kapitan. Whatever is already in the marketplace, however, can be legally sold.

Here’s something strange, though. There’s talk that Tanduay will formally ask Judge Edwin Sorongon to inhibit himself from any further hearings on the trademark infringement case filed by Ginebra San Miguel against Tanduay. It was the Mandaluyong regional trial court judge who issued the TRO against Tanduay.

Ginebra San Miguel is, of course, a subsidiary of San Miguel Corp., which is chaired by Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. Tanduay is a member of the Lucio Tan conglomerate.

* * *

The reason why Ayala Foundation, Inc. president Victoria Garchitorena has been flying to the United States at least four times this year is business, not politics.

Vicky Garchitorena is concurrent president of Ayala Foundation-USA which is chaired by Ayala Land Inc. chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala.

Basically, the California-based foundation solicits donations from Filipino-American organizations and individuals for projects in the Philippines that are not necessarily initiated by AFI. That means, AFI-USA is willing to be a conduit for money and contacts for, say, Boholanos to build some public school classrooms in their province.

* * *

Right now, Philippine Postal Savings Bank, Inc.’s two-month-old president Francisco Aniag Jr. is just carrying over plans set into motion by his predecessor, Juanito Magno.

Jun Aniag is, for course, very familiar with the bank’s plans, having been a member of the board until August this year, when he was named acting president and then president.

A subsidiary of Philippine Postal Corp., the thrift bank plans to add to its 15-branch network by opening three more branches before the end of the year. It is also very heavy into extending salary loans, a more productive alternative to buying treasury bills.