Regular visits to the dermatologist

There are a couple of thousands of Chinese tourists right now in the country, the result of a relatively long Labor Day holiday.

As everybody knows, the Chinese (the ones from the mainland) have more disposable income these days.

It doesn’t hurt that President Macapagal-Arroyo’s government has just made it easier for them to enter the country – they can now get their visa when they enter the Philippines instead of apply for it in China.

One exception to this rule are travelers from Xiamen, mainly because most Chinese-Filipinos can trace their roots from this southern Chinese province (read: visitors from Xiamen may just decide to, uhm, stay longer than they should with their Filipino relatives and no one would be the wise for it).

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Did you know 1: Taipan Lucio Tan hasn’t merely deconstructed Sun Tzu’s "The Art of War", he likes to discuss its many applications in business.

This might be useful to those guys at Italy-based Cirio Finanziara, who are now of the opinion that negotiations with Mr. Tan for Cirio’s close to 30-percent stake in Del Monte Pacific is dead in the water.

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Did you know 2: When Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System privatized Metro Manila’s water concession, the Lopez Group had Deutsche Bank (whose Manila office was then headed by Jose Isidro Camacho) as financial adviser and the Ayala Group had JP Morgan Chase (whose Manila office was then headed by Simon Paterno) as financial adviser.

Well, Lito Camacho and Mr. Paterno now both work for First Boston Credit Suisse, which is not involve in the rebidding of the Lopez Group’s west concession.

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Bank notes 1: Good thing Citibank NA country corporate head James Hunt isn’t as sensitive as his Filipino counterparts.

After all, it really wasn’t his fault when the Bankers Association of the Philippine showed its strong disapproval of what Citi did (read: go against the BAP stand on taxes due on foreign currency deposit units) by taking him out of the open markets committee.

At any rate, the BAP might have just wanted to position Mr. Hunt’s replacement, International Exchange Bank president and chief executive officer Ramon Sy, as its next president when Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. corporate vice-chairman Cesar Virata steps down.

Mr. Sy is one of the original Filipino metrosexuals. He dresses well and he regularly goes to his dermatologist in Switzerland.

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Bank notes 2: No, incoming Sunlife of Canada president Lorenzo Tan hasn’t been talking to The Philippine-American Life and General Insurance Co. (and former Central Bank Governor) Jose Cuisia Jr.

Yayi Tan has been, however, picking the brains of some of the key officers he used to work with at Philippine National Bank and United Coconut Planters Bank.

The objective of Mr. Tan, who reports for work in his new job this July, is to get as close, if not outpace, Philamlife, the country’s largest insurance company which has been experiencing some problems with its mother company, AIG.

For one, AIG’s focus on building the China business has meant that Philamlife has had to work harder just to get noticed by its mother company. For another, New York-based AIG is having some, uhm, reportorial disagreements with American regulators.