Realignments

Bank notes 1: There’s talk that Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho has already given his nod to the successor of Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo. The replacement is an alumnus of the Philippine Military Academy.

As everybody knows, Lito Camacho and Tony Bernardo have known each other since their high school days at Don Bosco.

It is also not a secret that Mr. Bernardo intends to run for political office, either as mayor or congressman, in Mandaluyong next year.

For that purpose, he has maintained his home near City Hall even if he is currently living in a rented home in a gated Pasig subdivision provided by another Don Bosco classroom, land developer Toti Carino.

* * *

Bank notes 2: For the sake of uniformity, Security International Cards Corp. will be renamed SB Cards Corp. next month. The renaming basically reinforces the brand equity of mother company, Security Banking Corp., in all its subsidiaries.

SB Cards has two credit cards. It holds the Philippine franchise the Diners Club card and it is the issuer of Security Bank Mastercard.

In the alignment, Jose Nunez Jr. moves up to chairman and Belen Lim is president.

* * *

Bank notes 3: Because of typhoon ‘Chedeng,’ the Commission on Appointments cancelled its meeting last Wednesday. That was the one that would have heard the credentials of former Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu to be the country’s Ambassador to Great Britain and Ireland.

The next CoA meeting–and the last one before Congress adjourns next Friday–is scheduled on June 4.

Then again, the CoA might decide to just pass up Ed Espiritu. You see, there’s talk that a petition will be filed this coming Monday before the CoA by investors of Westmont Investment Corp.

As everybody knows, the Wincorp investors are still trying to get their money back from the investment company’s former mother company. Westmont Bank (whose president was Mr. Espiritu before he joined the administration of former President Estrada), on the one hand, and from the investment company’s borrowers like Mr. Espiritu’s personal holding company, Ebecom, on the other hand.

Westmont Bank is now United Overseas Bank Phils., whose majority ownership by Singapore-based UOB has yet to get formal approval from the Monetary Board. You see, there’s this itty-bitty problem among the Filipino stockholders who were supposed to have sold their shares to Singapore.

On the one hand, there’s the group led by Mr. Espiritu’s son, John Anthony Espiritu, himself a former Westmont Bank/UOBP president and former Wincorp chairman. On the other hand, there’s the group of Manuel Tan.

In negotiating with the Singapore bank, the younger Mr. Espiritu, uh, miscalculated the shares held by Manny Tan.

Naturally, Mr. Tan isn’t very happy about that and is making so much noise that even Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura (who recently returned well-rested from a much-deserved vacation) is getting unhappy.