Free housing, education, and security detail

It’s probably coincidental that a geomancer or feng shui expert and a well-known paranormal practitioner were having lunch early this week with some big shots of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.

* * *

It’s probably coincidental that First Pacific head Manuel Pangilinan has been talking about renewing the Hong Kong-based company’s bid for GMA Network, Inc. at a time when the TV network’s stalled initial public offering might yet push through before the end of the year.

In the case of First Pacific, Manny Pangilinan’s official pronouncements have been made to everybody and one of the three stockholders of GMA Network. This is the family of First Pacific-controlled Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. executive Menardo Jimenez Jr.

In the case of GMA Network, chairman and president Felipe Gozon seems to have worked out a formula where the company’s stockholders – aside from the families of Messrs. Gozon and Jimenez, the other stockholder is the family of vice-chairman Gilberto Duavit Jr. – will still have a say in increasing the company’s capitalization but not in how that increase will be brought about.

* * *

Did you know 1: At one time, Indonesia was hiring Filipino bankers left and right. Well, the headhunters are now looking for telecommunications executives willing to relocate there.

As expatriates, Filipinos will be entitled to the usual free housing and education for the children plus an allowance for a security detail.

* * *

Did you know 2: Tiger Airways Pte Ltd. has been described as a "flying bus" by those who have taken the Clark-Singapore budget flight and vice-version.

You see, passengers cannot bring food onboard; they have to buy from the flight attendants, which charge P66 for a canned soft drink.

* * *

Did you know 3: Some Cebu-based congressmen on their third (and last) terms are now proposing to cut up the province into several provinces. Imagine, for example, a Cebu del Sur.

If that happens – congressional approval is first required (which should be easy), followed by a provincial referendum (which should be difficult) – each of the new provinces will be getting a budget allocation from the National Government already burdened by a widening deficit. The new provinces will also require bureaucracies of their own, manned, naturally enough, by the relatives of the incumbent congressman who can run for governor.

* * *

Did you know 4: One of the projects Lucio Tan batted for when he was president of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. was the coming up of a Philippine investment manual aimed at Chinese investors and written, naturally, in Mandarin.

Well, his two-year term ended and so has the term of his successor, Robinson Sy, and the project has been revived by new federation president, Francis Chua.