He didn’t wake up

Roxas Group director Eduardo Roxas Olgado was 48 years old when he died last Thursday.

Actually, he just never woke up from a night’s sleep after his usual workout at the gym the day before. To cool down, he even borrowed some video tapes to watch at home before calling it a night.

Among natural doctors or herbolaryos, Ed Roxas’ death would have been bangungot. Western-trained doctors would have traced it to some failure in the pancreas.

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Bank notes 1: In this top 5 bank, one of the jobs of the security guard in the human resources department is to look at the transcript of records of fresh graduates applying for a job and, using his security guard skills, arbitrarily decide whether the application will be accepted/processed or not and to announce his decision to everybody within hearing distance.

On the one hand, this must be one way for HRD to save on cost. After all, the security guard isn’t even a bank employee and, therefore, does not receive the pay of the lowest-paid bank employee.

On the other hand, such discourtesy isn’t really necessary, if only because these applicants – many of whom come from well-off-families – may decide to do their present and future banking elsewhere.

Imagine if the arrogance of these security guards hired by this bank also extends to the opening of other confidential documents, this time involving sensitive financial transactions!

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Bank notes 2: That the Social Security System led by president and chief executive officer Corazon de la Paz is thinking of building a new head officer under a build, operate, and transfer isn’t new.

After all, that’s what Land Bank of the Philippines did when it teamed up with Andrew Tan’s Megaworld Corp. to develop its property near the US Embassy in Manila.

In the case of SSS, Cora de la Paz is dealing with a United Kingdom-based company called EC Harris – only because these guys approached her and, well, because no local company gave her a similar unsolicited BOT offer.

SSS intends to turn its current head office into a hospital for members, a business Ms. De la Paz and her senior management team don’t have any working experience.

Then again, Ms. de la Paz, who has done her share of managing businesses as former head of PriceWaterhouseCoopers/J. Cunanan and as rehabilitation or liquidation head for companies in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission, believes that managing from the top is pretty much the same, whatever the industry.

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Working parallel with SEC’s Enforcement and Compliance director Jose Tomas Syquia on investments scams is convenor of the Coalition Against Pyramiding Syndicates Roberto Guevarra.

Argee Guevarra is concentrating all his guns on the Arriola family, whose Five Vision Consultancy, Inc. and three allied companies have been issued cease-and-desist orders by the SEC.