Electoral surprise

Now, that recent election of the Management Association of the Philippines is still being talked about.

Traditionally, it’s the vice-president – in this case, Deogracias Vistan, a former president of the Bankers Association of the Philippines – who becomes the next president. Well, Sonny Vistan wasn’t elected.

MAP’s new president is Ed Ferreria, who heads a pharmaceutical company so small its name has to be repeated several times and still the name doesn’t ring a bell.

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Instead of doing the unthinkable by moving out of Binondo, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. president John K.C. Ng has been renovating the FFCCCII building floor by floor.

It’s not as dark and ugly as before. Nor does it look anymore like a factory floor. But the building is still a bitch to get to for anybody not based in Binondo.

By the way, Johnny Ng must have a masochistic streak. You see, he intends to run as federation president next year. Mr Ng is currently serving the unfinished two-year term of Benjamin Chua Jr., who passed away early this year.

Should Mr. Ng be elected, he will be federation president until 2004, which is when the country holds its own presidential elections.

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Bank notes 1: Former Allied Bank president Peter Favila was endlessly ribbed by fellow bankers who play golf when he was seen on TV with Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez inside the US Embassy.

Mr. Favila was nattily dressed (in an americana or coat and tie) and looked very much like he had shifted careers from banking to the legal profession.

It turned out, Mr. Favila was there in his position as senior advisor to House Speaker Jose de Venecia.

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Bank notes 2: The executive committee meetings in this particular bank are not for the weak-hearted.

The talk is extremely racy, with a lot of sexual jokes and innuendos traded. Members would rather catch up on each other’s personal lives rather than listen to the official presentation of their subordinates.

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Bank notes 3: Bank of the Philippine Islands president Xavier Loinaz was probably not himself when he announced that the Ayala-controlled bank is putting up its own special purpose asset vehicle to initially handle P2 billion of its non-performing assets.

After, all, it was also Mr. Loinaz who inadvertently tweaked the other bankers by claiming BPI has one of the lowest NPAs ratio in the industry.

That initial P2 billion is about how much BPI lent to the Ramcar Group of Manuel Agustines, most of which were clear loans or not backed by collateral. And as everybody knows, Manolo Agustines has declared a debt moratorium and BPI and the other creditor-banks are still working out an acceptable restructuring program in court. If successful, BPI will transfer another 10 percent to 15 percent of its NPAs to the SPAV.