No ghosts here

Did you know 1: There’s a new ice cream brand in supermarket freezers called Favorito.

The thing is, the ice cream brand – which comes in several flavors and sizes – doesn’t indicate who the manufacturer is.

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Did you know 2: All the private sector representatives to the Bangko Sentral’s policy-setting body, the Monetary Board, are named after their fathers (read "Juniors") except for Fe Barin.

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Did you know 3: There are no ghosts hovering around the American Memorial in Fort Bonifacio Global City because it is not and never has been a cemetery.

Robinsons Land Corp. executive vice-president Frederick Go and head of the high-rise building group Danilo Ignacio made sure of that when the Fifth Ave. Place residential condominium was being conceptualized.

The condominium, which occupies only a third of the total property purchased by RLC late last year from the Ayala-Campos consortium (read: lots of open space and gardens), fronts the memorial and more open space.

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The word is president Lorenzo Tan isn’t too happy that Philippine National Bank is no longer the top of mind choice of Saudi-based Filipino workers sending money back to the Philippines.

Based on official records of Arab National Bank, the Saudi Arabia partner of both PNB and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., RCBC generated about $50 million to $60 million more business than PNB last year.

By the way, the head of RCBC’s Middle East (including Saudi Arabia) business is assistant vice-president James Oliver, a former employee of Philippine Airlines.

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One of the first things Punongbayan & Araullo principal and corporate finance head Antonio Herbosa did when family corporations consultancy was added to his group late last year was to set up his own geneogram or a family tree which traces strong family characteristics like honesty or greed which are passed down from one generation to another.

The side of his father, former United Coconut Planters Bank chief operating officer Enrique Herbosa, were largely professionals. His mother’s side, the Limjaps, were entrepreneurs.

Tony Herbosa can trace his lineage, on both father’s and mother’s side, to sisters of patriot, Paciano Rizal, who was horribly tortured by the Spaniards while his brother, Jose Rizal, was incarcerated in Fort Santiago.

The family tree is an important first step to determining family dynamics, which, in turn, is important to come up with a plan that would ensure a smooth relationship among family members who also work for the family corporation when the founder or patriarch is still alive and to minimize the irrevocable breaking of family ties when the founder passes on the management of the company to his/her chosen successor.