The Makati Business Club’s Good Governance Top Gun, who happens to be at the forefront of the "GMA Resign" movement, finds himself strangely out of a job. It looks like what goes around comes around. Our Spy-Ring reported that Asian Institute of Management (AIM) president Bobby de Ocampo got a no-confidence vote from the AIM Board of Trustees last Monday. The board actually asked for his resignation reportedly because he was a hands-off president. He was reportedly never around. Our informants told us, however, the real reason behind his ouster is because he hired outside consultants to serve as lecturers, a practice which is normally not done at the AIM. Worse, these lecturers were paid in dollars, but allegedly not the full amount. It looked like a typical "skimming from the top" operation.
Spybiz tried to get in touch with De Ocampo for his side but he could not be reached.
| The fabulous MerMac estate |
Ayala Corp. grand matriarch Doña Mercedes Zobel McMicking died last Saturday in Sotogrande, Spain at the age of 98. Doña Mercedes married American intelligence officer Col. Joseph McMicking in 1931, who is acknowledged as a visionary and the architect of Makati’s transformation from grasslands into a prime residential and business community. Together, Doña Mercedes and Joe McMicking established Ayala Foundation (formerly known as Filipinas Foundation) to support scientific research and development efforts. Among the more colorful stories surrounding Doña Mercedes involved that of her favorite nephew, the late Enrique Zobel. Enzo had been quarreling with his cousin Andres Soriano Jr., then head of San Miguel Corp. This enmity was intensified when Enzo decided to sell 25 percent of Ayala’s SMC shareholdings to Danding Cojuangco, who later became SMC vice chair. This controversial divestment earned the ire of the Zobel clan, who then ousted Enzo and gave managerial control of Ayala Corp. to his cousin Jaime Zobel de Ayala. The two never talked again, even up to Enzo’s death last year. Interestingly, Doña Mercedes had already divided the McMicking shares as far back as five or six years ago through a holding company named MerMac, Inc. that owned 70 percent of Ayala Corp. When Joe McMicking died, his widow had already distributed the shares – 35 to percent going to the family of Don Jaime and the other 35 percent to Enzo heirs Iñigo and Mercedes "Dedes" Zobel, who presently lives abroad. Ironically Enzo’s son, Iñigo, who holds his sister’s shares in trust, is the single biggest stockholder of Ayala with an estimated 20 percent of the multi-billion dollar company.
| Top US Spy’s plane lands here |
When US Spy Master John Negroponte arrived here the other day, he flew on a C-17A aircraft known as the Globemaster. As soon as its VIPs disembarked, Eye-Spies reported that the Globemaster was spirited into the Presidential hangar at Villamor Airbase and tightly secured by Filipino and US forces. The awesome Globemaster is the newest airlift aircraft to enter the US Air Force’s inventory. With a range of 5,200 nautical miles, it can cross oceans and continents at high subsonic speeds (600 mph) and deliver 167,000 pounds of troops cargo, vehicles, and weapons. The C-17 is capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases in the deployment area. The aircraft is also able to perform theater airlift missions when required. It can airdrop a brigade of paratroopers and equipment within 30 minutes. Cargo is loaded onto the Globemaster through a large aft door that accommodates military vehicles and palletized cargo. The Globemaster measures approximately 174 feet long with a 170-foot wingspan. The aircraft is powered by four fully reversible Pratt & Whitney F117-PW-100 engines (the commercial version is currently used on the Boeing 757). The aircraft is operated by a crew of three (pilot, copilot and loadmaster). US civilian officials use a Globemaster that is configured for executive transport. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld uses a similar one when he flies to Iraq and other hotspots. The one used by Top Spy John Negroponte is equipped with the latest spy equipment even James Bond’s gadgetman Q will drool over.
| Spy tidbiz: Castilaloy sickness |
Spybiz high society operatives reported that an heir to a large real estate clan who received a helicopter from his wife, an heiress herself of another fabulously wealthy landed family - was reportedly caught with his pants down with their housemaid. It seems this high-flying Castila couldn’t control his genes having descended from the Spanish gentry and the Spanish friars.
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