Man in blue

By his own admission, JG Summit Holdings Corp. (and non-Atenean) president Lance Gokongwei likes blue shirts – plain, checkered, striped, whatever. The few non-blue office shirts that he has are relatively new, purchased by wife, Jay Gokongwei.

Under the JG Summit set-up, Mr. Gokongwei is president and chief operating officer of all companies under the holding company. He reports to uncle, James Go, who functions as chairman and chief executive officer.

As a professional manager, Mr. Gokongwei defers to Mr. James on business matters. As a son, he seeks the advice of John Gokongwei Jr. on personal matters.

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Former Finance Undersecretary Romeo Bernardo is unabashedly a fan of wife and senatorial candidate Amina Rasul-Bernardo, whom he immediately fell in love with after she soundly clobbered him in a college debate.

Romy Bernardo is one of the movers behind the Federation for Economic Freedom, an aggrupment with so many doctors in economics (from top American schools like Harvard University) like former National Economic and Development Authority director-generals Cayetano Paderanga Jr. and Felipe Medalla that it’s embarrassing to admit to having, sigh, only a masters degree.

The nice thing about FEF is that it has taken strong positions on economic issues rather than personalities. It has also come up with an economic program which any of the presidential candidates can borrow.

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Nestle Phils. senior vice-president for human resources Marcelino Pineda has packed his bag – okay, his wife did the packing – and left yesterday for Vevey, Switzerland. He has been promoted as Nestle’s director of human resources for Zone Asia, Oceania, and Africa, the highest position a Filipino has reached in the Nestle head office.

Mr. Pineda starts in his new job this coming February and expects to spend the first days explaining to his new colleagues that his nickname, Jung, is not pronounced like the German letter J.

Mr. Pineda’s second-in-command, Gideon Manuel, will take over his old job.

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Remember that law that requires government employees to wear uniforms made from Philippine fabric?

Well, Philippine Textile Research Institute headed by director Carlos Tomboc is finally going to pilot that project sometime next month, using a banana-silk material.

By the way, PTRI has now come up with natural dyes (like yellow ginger for yellow, indigo for blue, and annatto for red) in powder form. The use of powder takes away much of the guesswork in the dyeing process, paving the way for color standardization.