Eat less, text more

Did you know 1: Sales of instant noodle didn’t grow as much as expected last year. Yes, it’s partly because of the economy. Then again, it could be that people would rather eat less and text more.

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Did you know 2: Starting this year, Social Security System president and chief executive officer Corazon de la Paz has implemented a mandatory annual physical appearance of beneficiaries of pension fund benefits such as death benefits.

Basically, the pension fund just wants to know if, say, the widow-beneficiary has re-married (in which case, the answer will always be no) or has also passed away.

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It seems that all members of the Monetary Board whose tenure ends on various days/months in the second half of 2005 will now all formally retire on the July 3 anniversary of the enactment of the Bangko Sentral Act.

That means Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura will have to adjust his daily countdown to his retirement by a couple of days.

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Robinsons Land Corp. head for high-rise buildings Danilo Ignacio is off to the United States again sometime this April to sell residential condominium units to cash-rich Filipino-Americans.

As of end-2004, RLC has meet its 60 percent pre-selling target of Fifth Avenue in the Bonifacio Global City, all because of Danny Ignacio’s idea to set up a marketing arm in the US.

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Retired Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. executive vice-president Jaime Panganiban has been reporting daily to the head office of the Development Bank of the Philippines for the past two weeks. You see, Jimmy Panganiban has agreed to be a consultant (without pay) to beef up the bank’s treasury operations, largely because of his friendship with bank president and chief executive officer Reynaldo David.

Naturally, Mr. Panganiban’s tenure is co-terminus with that of Rey David.

Mr. Panganiban’s presence in DBP is interesting. You see, by beefing up its treasury operations, the bank not just provides clients other venues of raising cash (such as commercial notes) but also raises additional income which would be added to the bank’s primary mandate – that of serving as a catalyst for development by nurturing small-and-medium-sizes enterprises and by financing infrastructure projects which impact on businesses all over the country.