Friends of Mr. Arroyo

Bank notes 1: Maybe the stakeholder-chairman knows and maybe he doesn’t know.

You see, the plan of his president and chief executive officer to migrate is practically known by everybody who matter within the small banking community.

Okay, so the CEO’s migration is linked to a possible career opportunity abroad.

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Bank notes 2: Aside from chairman Bernardino Abes, there are six other new faces in the board of the Government Service Insurance System. The more interesting ones are Esperanza Ocampo, president of the Philippine Government Employees Association; Jocelyn Bolante, who was Agriculture Undersecretary prior to this new appointment; and Jesus Santos, who handled the legal brief for the husband of President Macapagal-Arroyo during the investigation on the bank accounts of a certain Jose Pidal.

Mr. Bolante – yes, he’s very much a man and a member of the same Rotary Club attended by the President’s husband, Mike Arroyo – is expected to put up a grand car show for at least the first seven days that he is seen at the basement parking lot of the GSIS head office.

Basically, this means Mr. Bolante will be showing off his collection of, sigh, high-end European cars. This way, he hopes to immediately quash any malicious conclusions that his new constituents might make about his wealth, which was nurtured during his stint as chief operating officer of the Prudentialife Group, a pre-need company which also happens to co-own the property on which SM Megamall sits on.

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If things work out, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales intends to have a weekend tiangge 52 times a year in the courtyards of all the parish churches under his jurisdiction. On sale will be mostly the products of urban poor groups assisted technically and financially by Catholic organizations.

Mind you, this isn’t a freebie for urban poor groups. They are expected to support the Cardinal’s "theology of the crumbs" through a revenue-sharing program similar to that between a mall operator and its tenants.

In this particular case, the Church will get 25 centavos from every product sold. Added up, these 25 centavos plus those donated daily by individuals and groups will be used to finance other projects to alleviate poverty.

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The Lucio Tan Group has already identified two areas in Ilocos Sur and two in La Union, where dams will be rehabilitated. The cost of the pilot project to catch water for the use of tobacco farmers and to help them diversify into other cash crops such as saffron and kenaf is estimated at P3 million.

Right now, these farmlands do not have enough fresh water, resulting in the use of saline water from deep wells that have resulted in a harvest of poor quality tobacco leaves.

Mind you, Mr. Tan is willing to spend up to P1 billion for the project nationwide. What he wants to establish this early though is the cost per project, assuming the contractors do their job and there are no, uhm, additional inputs from officials of local government units.