Poveda, Pohvaydah, whatever

Bragging rights 1: To distinguish themselves from their provincial-based brothers, students and alumni of Ateneo de Manila University refer to their school as "The Ateneo".

As for those students and alumni of the former Institucion Teresiana, the correct way to pronounce their school name, a learning center by the way, is "Poh-vay-dah". Anything else shows an extreme lack of, uh, social mobility.

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Bragging rights 2: Lucio Tan, of course, has a small fleet of helicopters to get around town. It beats getting caught in a traffic gridlock or meeting some whackos on the road.

Being talked about in Binondo again is another taipan’s 100-percent successful strategy of (to quote Anakin Skywalker in "Star Wars Book 2) "aggressive negotiations".

The urban legend has it that the taipan brings out his checkbook when faced with unpleasant characters on the road and politely asks them how many zeroes he should write on the blank check – no questions asked and, certainly, no need for him to leave his car.

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Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho belongs to that batch of investment bankers who resolved to serve government in their 40s. By that time, so their reasoning went, they would have parlayed their salaries and commissions into a more than decent nest egg to support their families in the style they have gotten used to and still work for government for a monthly gross salary of P40,000 or less.

In this group are Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas II (who is unmarried and lives in the family compound); Energy Secretary Vicente Perez Jr. (who is married but childless by choice); and Development Bank of the Philippines president and chief executive officer Simon Paterno (who is married and has three young children).

In Lito Camacho’s case, he obviously miscalculated how far his savings and investment portfolio would last and a budget deficit looms, which could force him – heaven forbid! – to borrow like the Republic of the Philippines.

When he joined government two years ago, he already had six children, all of them studying in schools with six-digit annual tuition. Well, Mr. Camacho still has six children, two of whom are now taking, as planned, their undergraduate studies at his alma mater, Harvard University.

There are also real estate taxes and maintenance expenses to be paid on a Makati home and a second home in the province (actually a farm where he collects miniature animals) plus a vacation home or two in the United States.

By the way, other members of this investment bankers club – many of whom used to play basketball together in New York – are Philippine National Bank president Lorenzo Tan and his brother, Banco de Oro Universal Bank president Nestor Tan as well as United Coconut Planters Bank executive vice-president Andrew Alcid.

These guys are paid market rates.