One of Ed Espiritu’s favorite words

Former Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu must have this affinity to the word, "united".

You see, Ed Espiritu is said to be now eyeing the ambassadorship to the United Kingdom after failing in his earlier bid to be appointed ambassador to the United Nations.

As everybody knows, Mr. Espiritu divested his personal shares in Westmont Bank to United Overseas Bank of Singapore when he joined the Department of Finance although his son, John Anthony Espiritu stayed on as bank president until the Singapore Bank decided to buy out most of its Philippine partners.

In his bid to represent the country in the Court of St. James, Mr. Espiritu has been seen in, uh, earnest talks with one congressman or another.

One the one hand, Mr. Espiritu has been emphasizing his role in the impeachment trial of former President Estrada. On the other hand, Mr. Espiritu has been downplaying his role or "non-role" in such companies as National Steel Co. and Westmont Investment Corp.

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Have you seen those signs in Makati declaring San Miguel Corp. chairman and chief executive officer Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. as the "pag-asa ng bayan"?

Better yet, have you seen that new TV commercial – Philippine Basketball Association fans surely have seen this one – that informs consumers of the change in corporate name of La Tondeña Distillers, Inc. to Ginebra San Miguel, Inc.?

Yup, Danding Cojuangco identifies himself at the end of the commercial.

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Within an hour after that teen-ager fell into a ventilation chamber within the Manila Water Co. Inc. concession last Saturday, president Antonino Aquino heard about it from three different MWCI sources and the company’s crisis management team was in place.

That’s a pretty good response time – and rivals that of Manila Electric Co.

Being a Saturday (and a Saturday in the closing days of summer, at that), many of MWCI’s officers and employees were out of town. The guys who also monitor the different areas of the concession are also staff rather than line as part of a training program that enables staff to understand what line goes through and, in the process, better understand their role in the corporate scheme of things.

MWCI has been in the black since 2000, three years after it won the concession bid from the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.

Last year, the company netted about P500 million and that figure would go up by between 80 percent and 100 percent this year.

Aside from its healthy bottom line (which contributes, in turn, to the coffers of Ayala Corp.), MWCI is said to be a favorite of Ayala vice-chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala. Not only is Mr. Zobel de Ayala MWCI chairman, Mr. Zobel de Ayala also likes the idea that MWCI is a new but profitable venture of the Ayala Group.