An unhappy family

There’s talk that presidential adviser on strategic projects Gloria Tan Climaco has a job offer almost too good to turn down.

This will be the second time the Singapore-based private sector job, which pays in US dollars, will be offered to Ms. Climaco, a former chairman of SGV & Co.

The first time, the offer was for one of the top three positions in the regional set-up. This time around, the offer is for the number one spot.

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December launch 1: Summit Publishing publisher Liza Gokongwei-Cheng has tied up with a Singapore group to publish manga or Japanese-style comic books for the Philippine market.

There’s talk that Ms. Gokongwei-Cheng will launch not one but two titles next month, making these the 14th and 15th publications of Summit.

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December launch 2: Philip Morris Phils. managing director Chris Nelson is unfazed by the plan of former manufacturer-partner La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Factory, to come up with a Philip Morris-like blend that will retail four times cheaper than the original.

To make sure the taste is just right, La Suerte is said to have gotten the services of an Australia-born blender who used to work for Philip Morris.

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In his novel, "Anna Karenina," Leo Tolstoy said that happy families were all alike while each unhappy family had different story to tell.

In the case of Bernadine and George Siy, their story started with their parents.

In Binondo, the marriage of Ramon Siy Lai and Rosalina Tiong was considered a mesalliance. Ramon Siy Lai had very little money while Lina Tiong’s father, a stockbroker, had lots. (At the time of his death in 1987, the financial situation of the two families had been reversed).

Since Rosalina Tiong Siy was educated in the United States (undergraduate studies at the University of Rochester and the University of Pennsylvania), she raised her six children along Western lines.

As a result, Bernadine was never called achi or first older sister by her five younger siblings nor was George called aya or first older brother. Both Bernadine and George did not call their younger siblings sioti (younger brother) or siobe (younger sister).

By the time Bernadine and George reached college age, they had organized a family council made up of themselves and the two siblings after them to bridge the growing cultural differences between their parents and to informally help their father with the business. These were sibling number three Wilfred, who is now allied to Bernadine; and sibling number four Angeline, who is now allied to George.

Among his contemporaries, Mr. Siy would often boast of the academic record of Bernadine, who graduated magna cum laude from Ateneo de Manila University’s honors program, major in economics. (A classmate in the honors program was Development Bank of the Philippines president and chief executive officer Simon Paterno.)

With the same contemporaries, Mr. Siy also talked about his disappointment – some said he cried shamelessly – when George came home from Wharton and refused to join the family business. Instead, George went into the real estate business for himself. George joined the family business only upon the verbal promise of Mr. Siy that he would leave the business to his oldest son.