Acts of discrimination

Bank notes 1: The first runner-up – the one with the nice teeth – in a recently-concluded TV talent search made the rounds of banks to thank officers and employees for voting via text for him.

The bank text brigade was initiated by Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. director Remedios Macalincag, who is the aunt (through her husband, former Finance Undersecretary Victor Macalincag) of the young man.

No, Remy Macalincag didn’t ask Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura, who always carries two cell phones with him.

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Bank notes 2: Land Bank of the Philippines president Margarito Teves has set up an appointment with Government Service Insurance System president and general manager Winston Garcia.

You see, Mr. Garcia has just pulled out billions of pesos in deposits and investments from LandBank and transferred these to the Development Bank of the Philippines – and Gary Teves is clueless despite previous smaller withdrawals or closure of accounts (read: these involve multi-million pesos) by other government-owned and – controlled corporations.

As everybody knows, both LandBank and DBP are government depository banks but LandBank theoretically has the retail edge because it has about three times more outlets nationwide (not to mention an international network) than DBP.

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Now, here is an interesting case filed before the National Labor Relations Commission by Victor Filamor against his former employer, Sterling Tobacco Corp. and Sterling’s former owner, PTHM Sampoerna International.

Vic Filamor is asking for P20 million in damages because he has been "discriminated against to prevent me from protecting the welfare of my co-Filipino employees in the company."

Until November of 2003, Mr. Filamor’s official designation was general manager and head of sales and marketing. During what he considered a routine briefing of Philippine operations – which finally turned a profit of P42 million during Mr. Filamor’s one-and-a-half year stint – in Singapore, the international headquarters of Indonesia-based Sampoerna, Mr. Filamor was told his job was redundant.

His one-month notice (read: he would still be paid his salary although he didn’t have to report for work) was effective immediate.

On the same day, Mr. Filamor took a flight back home, accompanied by an Indonesian who took over his office.

A month to the day that Mr. Filamor was, uh, notified that he no longer had a job, Sampoerna announced to the sale of Sterling for about $18 million to Philip Morris Phils. That was the same day, Sterling workers learned about the deal.

Since then, most of the Sterling employees have been terminated (and are still unemployed, including Mr. Filamor). The last group – the accountants – should be finished with their work – by the end of this month.

Bottom line? Mr. Filamor obviously feels that Sampoerna should have done more to prepare Sterling workers for the lose of their jobs – after all, the negotiations for the sale to Philip Morris took several months – and to help them either find new jobs in the same industry or develop new skills.