Trouble in Paradise

It’s no longer a rumor.

In the newsletter for Ayala Alabang residents (which include former President Ramos) released last Friday, it was reported that two sports utility vehicles – one parked just outside the owner’s residence and one parked inside the owner’s garage – were recently stolen.

As a result of these incidents, the subdivision association has tightened security, at least for a month.

For one, it has replaced the security agency, which used to man the subdivision’s entry/exit outposts and which used to make a regular round of all streets every 30 minutes.

For another, it has limited the entry/exit of vehicles at night, whether these carry or not village stickers, to only one outpost (the one along Madrigal Ave.) where a video-cam of all vehicles and their drivers/passengers is taken.

It’s even worse for drivers of SUVs, including owners, who are asked to step out of their vehicles and to produce the vehicles’ ownership papers.

Needless to say, these added security measures have led to waiting lines of up to 30 minutes for residents and their guests at the check-point just to enter or to leave the subdivision.

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Incoming Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap will probably have to jog around the 4-storey Department of Agriculture compound to get the kind of work-out he used to get walking up and down the stairs to his 10th floor office at the National Food Authority.

During his free weekends – which he isn’t expected to enjoy a lot of once he moves to the DA head office – Art Yap plays golf, tennis, and badminton.

As everybody knows, Mr. Yap is the youngest and only Chinese-Filipino member of President Macapagal-Arroyo’s Cabinet. His dad, Domingo Yap, is a major player in the local paint industry and is well thought of within the Chinese-Filipino community.

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Did you know 1: That tie-up between Cebu Pacific Air and Jollibee Foods Corp. is a two-month promotion that ends this Aug. 31.

By that time, the two Jollibee-on-Wheels located at Cebu Pacific’s parking lot will be pulled out even as the assessment of the promotion offered to Manila-Cebu and Manila Davao (and vice-versa) passengers begins.

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Did you know 2: There’s talk that a top five local bank will start soon a major restructuring of its businesses along the two-bank strategy of Citibank NA. That means a chief executive officer for the corporate banking business and another CEO for the consumer banking business, both CEOs co-equal.

As everybody knows, Citi’s consumer banking business has been growing at a faster pace than the corporate banking side, in large part because Philippine economic growth has been consumption-driven (read: Filipinos have been buying more goods via credit cards and OFW remittances rather than producing more goods).