After work punching bags

Remember Give a Life Foundation executive director Philip Cruz, whose certificate of completion was withheld by the Philippine General Hospital for about a year because he refused to divert some of the funds raised to help cancer-stricken children from poor families to other PGH projects such as a diagnostic center and a library?

Well, he finally got the certificate last week and is now a well-fledged pediatrician.

The thing is, the hospital he wanted to practice in – The New Medical City – returned the money that his parents paid for a proprietary share.

Officially, the refund amounting to about P1.6 million was made because of his problems with PGH. Unofficially, the refund was partially triggered by the close friendship between the heads of both hospitals, which could be traced back to their medical school days.

As an alternative, Dr. Cruz is thinking of using part of the refund to finance neonatal studies in the United States.

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Did you know 1: Smart Communications Inc. division head for personal communications and mobile services Anastacio Martirez likes to bring his people to a boxing club called The Red Corner in Makati to de-stress.

No, Boy Martirez is not the punching bag. Fact is, he gives as good as he gets from the punching bag, of course.

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Did you know 2: The best time to spot The Coca-Cola Export Co.’s head of Philippine operation Alex Van Bergh is at the start and/or the close of the working day.

He’s the man carrying an obviously old attaché case with some sort of rope for a handle.

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Did you know 3: Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank continues to maintain an unusually large kitty to meet legal expenses. The bulk of that is directed at the Bangko Sentral and, before 1993 when the 1949 Central Bank Act was amended the Central Bank.

Since 1984, when the CB closed the bank for insolvency, the bank associated with the Aguirre family, has sued every governor of the central monetary authority for one reason or another except for Gabriel Singson, who ordered the reopening of the bank in 1993.

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There’s talk that Government Service and Insurance System president and general manager Winston Garcia will – should he choose to – to be "moved up" in gratitude for Cebu and its governor, Pablo Garcia, delivering the votes to President-elect Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Mr. Garcia hasn’t exactly been popular with people like former Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho, who wanted GSIS to continue its policy of farming out the bulk of the reinsurance of government companies to the private sector.

Instead, Mr. Garcia insisted that GSIS take on most of the business and farm out only 15 percent (instead of the usual 85 percent) to the private sector.