Prince of darkness

In the Visayas, Energy Secretary Vicen-te Perez Jr. is derisively called the "prince of darkness", not because of his complexion but because of his perceived inaction on the power crisis.

Cebu currently suffers from intermittent power outages while Bacolod has had one or two brownouts in recent weeks that could not be traced to jelly fish or to the tripping of the transmission grid.

In the case of Cebu, there is no back up to the old power plant when it conks out because of the increased demand of the industrial sector.

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Bank notes 1: Said to be in an earlier shortlist to replace Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho (whose resignation took effect yesterday) was former Land Bank of the Philippines president and now Tarlac Rep. Jesli Lapus, (who was understandably not interested, being the vice-chairman of the committees on ways and means and on appropriations).

The latest shortlist is said to include current LandBank president Margarito Teves.

Heck, maybe another former LandBank president, Deogracias Vistan, is also being vetted. After all, it was Sonny Vistan, now United Coconut Planters Bank chairman, who invited fellow Citibanker, Diosdado Macapagal Jr., to join LandBank as executive vice-president on top of commercial banking operations.

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Bank notes 2: Citibank consumer banking head Nina Aguas is so proud of her new house that she’s been giving, uh, tours.

For one, it’s easy to get lost in the big house. For another, Ms. Aguas (like former Citibanker and former Finance Undersectary Florencia Gozon-Tarriela) has an extensive art collection worth seeing, both aesthetically and investment-wise.

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When Splash Corp. chairman Rolando Hortaleza recently applied for a 10-year tax holiday due a Filipino inventor anytime after his invention is commercialized, the knee-jerk reaction of a government agency has been to turn it down.

Reason? Giving Rolly Hortaleza what is due him by law would deprive government a lot of tax revenues.

As everybody knows, Mr. Hortaleza and his wife, Rosalina, started the business with P12,000. Today, Splash generates billions of pesos in sales which have been largely plowed back into the business in terms of more jobs and more research and development.

By the way, Mr. Hortaleza and other inventors who have successfully brought their inventions to the marketplace are not yet included in that itty-bitty section on Filipino inventors in hekasi or social studies textbooks.

Those textbooks – which all parents have to wade through with their children – limit the discussion to the guy who sold his fluorescent light invention to General Electric, the guy who invented the karaoke but didn’t benefit from it, and the Filipino-American who designed the moon buggy.