A tell-all book of the best families

Did you know 1: Binondo is truly bothered by recent reports that cremated ashes of loved ones in Taiwan are being, uh, kidnapped for ransom.

In the Chinese mind, not paying would be so unfilial. After all, how can one’s dead father or mother enjoy this afterlife if their ashes have been so rudely disturbed? The thought of the ashes of their loved ones being scattered here and there is unthinkable.

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Did you know 2: Shoplifting in the Philippines is said to account for at least five percent of the operating cost of retail outlets like supermarkets, which is, of course, passed on to the consumers.

Mind you, the professional shoplifter goes to, uh, school to keep up with technology.

For example, they know that products with hard tags – which are deactivated by the cashier upon payment – cannot be detected by those detectors at the entrance of stores if covered in aluminum.

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Did you know 3: Only those specializing in therapeutic massage – better known as the Swedish style – are required by the Department of Health to get a license to work. And that is issued only after completing 60 hours of practicum.

The other kinds of massage such as reflexology and acupressure are not monitored by government and can be offered by any Tom, Dick, or Harriet (regardless of experience and expertise) to anybody willing to pay.

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Everybody’s trying to get a copy of this book privately published by one of the former major stockholders of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.

There are only 2,000 copies and every single one is meant to be given away to friends (who are presumably as rich as the publisher or used to be as rich).

Aside from the social cachet of having a copy, the book is a tell-all of the families – including that of the PLDT stockholder – who made their money in the 1950s. Yes, behind some of these fortunes are the most interesting of crimes. And yes, some of these fortunes have been well spent and eventually lost.

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After promising himself that his only involvement this election season is to vote come May, First Generation Holdings Corp. chief executive officer Peter Garrucho – First Gen’s president is Federico Lopez – is helping in the congressional campaign of former Appointments Secretary Jun Lozada in Negros Occidental.

Mr. Lozada, who is running against Ignacio Arroyo – okay, the brother-in-law of President Macapagal-Arroyo and the husband of the Philippine Stock Exchange chairman Alicia Morales Arroyo – has come up with an in-your-face campaign line: "Ibagsak ang Pidalismo."

By the way, another senior officer in the Lopez conglomerate – this is Bayan Telecommunications chief financial officer Gary Olivar – has taken a leave of absence to campaign for presidential candidate Raul Roco.