Follow the boss

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. arrived from Butuan at 8 p.m. and had to attend an ongoing party in Quezon City which had him as the guest of honor. Well, Cito Lorenzo made it by 9 p.m. because he and his security (from the Presidential Security Group) took the MRT-3.

That's not the end of the story. The party broke up shortly, leaving Mr. Lorenzo to wait for quite some time outside the hotel for his driver who remained stuck in traffic.

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Bank notes 1: All those talk about Asian Institute of Management president Roberto de Ocampo rejoining government started when Guillermo Parayno accepted the position of commissioner at the Bureau of Internal Revenue. It was further fueled by the recent appointment of Alan Ortiz as president of the National Transmission Co.

You see, Willy Parayno was Customs commissioner and Mr. Ortiz was vice-chairman of the Development Bank of the Philippines at the time when Bobby de Ocampo was adjudged Euromoney's "Finance Minister of the Year."

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Bank notes 2: Expect the senior executives of DBP to be in a foul mood this entire week or, at least, until their bones don't hurt as much.

For one thing, they had to attend the annually held "family day" last weekend. For another, bank president Simon Paterno (whose proud-to-be Filipino parents chose a first name that was to be pronounced the same way you would say Jose Rizal’s anti-hero but is most often pronounced these day like the Mother Goose character) volunteered for this or that activity/contest. Of course, his fellow officers felt they had to be equally brave.

Not that Mon Paterno won. He might be younger than most of his management team but he's not as physically fit as those guys from security.

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Bank notes 3: Today is a pretty important day for Joel Valdes and everybody else at Trade and Investment Development Corp. of the Philippines.

You see, Tidcorp (which is better known by its brand name, Philexim) is signing a memorandum of understanding with the Overseas Private Investment Corp. of the United States.

Involving big money, the MOU will be signed by Mr. Valdes as Tidcorp president, Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho (as Tidcorp chairman). Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries president Sergio Ortiz-Luis, as US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone Jr.

Under the MOU, both Tidcorp and OPIC will work together in attracting foreign direct investments in the Philippines by providing guarantees, co-insurance and reinsurance services.

OPIC is a US government agency that facilitates the investment of private American capital in about 140 developing nations and emerging markets. For any one project, OPIC offers up to $500 million in total project support, up to $250 million in project finance, and up to $250 million in political risk insurance.