Dead or alive

Clearly, the bright guys of Social Security System president and chief executive officer Corazon de la Paz should look up some basic words in the dictionary.

It seems a pensioner who is too sick or too old to comply with the now mandatory annual personal visit to the SSS has the option to get up from his/her sickbed and visit either his/her barangay chairman, banker, or postmaster, who will, in turn, certify that the pensioner is still alive and is, therefore, entitled to portions of his/her forced savings made during his/her productive working years.

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Did you know 1: Fr. Carmelo Caluag, SJ, has a formidable job.

You see, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. chairman Eugenio Lopez III has given the newly elected independent director the job of, among others, making sure Kris Aquino’s TV wardrobe is always rated GP or for general patronage.

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Did you know 2: Just outside La Salle Greenhills is an electronic billboard donated by Globe Telecom, Inc., whose president Gerardo Ablaza is a proud alumnus. The billboard flashes new school activities as well as the honors won by its current and former students almost on a daily basis.

A couple of streets away, Xavier School, whose alumni include the sons and grandsons of retail magnate Henry Sy, also has a billboard of sorts. It’s the standard one without the bells and whistles, announcing the school’s pride in the election of Francis Lim as president of the Philippine Stock Exchange.

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In a letter dated May 19, ATR Kim Eng Financial Corporation executive vice-president Renato Leveriza Jr. writes that:

• the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, ATR —Kim Eng Capital Partners, Inc., intends to answer issues raised by LBC Development Corp. lawyer Ronaldo Tugonon on ATRKE’s management of LBC pre-need company, TPG, until 2002. Mr. Tugonon sent similar letters addressed to Securities and Exchange Commission Fe Barin and Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura.

• LBC and ARTKE are currently at odds with each other, with pending legal disputes here and in the United States, the most recent developments having been disclosed by ATRKE to PSE disclosure department head Ma. Pamela Quizon-Labayen last April 23, 2005. LBC is headed by Carlos Araneta while ATKE has Ramon Arnaiz as chairman and Manuel Tordesillas as president.

• ATRKE remains unclear how Mr. Tugonon arrived at P910 million – the basis for the accusation that ATRKE Capital is guilty of "serious breach of fiduciary duty and gross mismanagement of the funds of TPG."

• Mr. Araneta remains a member of the TPG board.

During happier times, the owners of both LBC and ATRKE liked each other enough to do business together in TPG. It was ATRKE Capital which handled TPG’s trust funds until, for reasons of their own, Mr. Arnaiz and fellow ATRKE-nominated directors resigned from the TPG board in 2002.

The fund is now managed by the trust department of International Exchange Bank, which is headed by Ramon Sy.