Good luck charms

Everybody knows that Puregold supermarket chain founder Lucio Co has a good head for business but not many know that he has a sentimental side.

For example, Mr. Lucio continues to keep an account with Equitable PCI Bank because former Equitable chairman George Go gave him his first commercial loan of P50,000.

And then, there’s that old COD store inside the Araneta Commercial Center, which Mr. Co has purchased and which will be reopened as a (what else!) Puregold outlet. The story goes that when Mr. Co started out, selling imported drinking glasses, the first commercial establishment which gave him a bulk order was COD (which was owned by the Rosario family).

Then again, superstition might have as much to do with Mr. Co’s action as sentiment. For Chinese-Filipino entrepreneurs, there is such a thing as persons and establishments which bring luck and should, therefore, not be abandoned.

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Energy Secretary Vicente Perez Jr. called last Tuesday to say that, yes, he does use the National Power Corp. executive jet to fly to El Nido in Palawan but only when he has official business in Malampaya.

Vince Perez conducts meetings related to Malampaya at the high-end resort (think Hollywood A-listers and European royalty as clients) which is owned and managed by Ten Knots Development Corp. chaired by wife, Leigh Ann Perez.

When he needs to go to Malampaya itself, he takes the chopper of Shell Petroleum Exploration – the standard vehicle used to get to the offshore natural gas project – which can just as well pick him all the way from Manila).

On private visits, Mr. and Ms. Perez use El Nido’s private plane, for free, naturally.

As everybody knows, Ten Knots used to be owned by the group of Andres Soriano III but is now majority owned by Ms. Perez’s group called Asian Conservation Corp. In turn, Asian Conservation was organized by the Next Century Fund, which Mr. Perez and a group of rich-before-40 balikbayans put up to encourage investments in the country.

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In a letter dated July 15, ABS-CBN Talent Development and Management Center director for training of non-artists Stephanie Reinoso explains why publicly-listed ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. requires payment from students taking their practicum or internship. Other large companies, including ABS-CBN’s nearest competitor, do not charge students for the on-the-job graded training required by schools.

Here’s the major points of Ms Reinoso’s letter:

• "The internship program, open to Mass Communications/Broadcast/Communication students only, has been designed to provide on-the-job trainees with in-depth exposure to professional television production facilities, techniques, and practices. As such, the Network has seen it fit to charge a fee of P1,000 and not P1,500 as your (July 5) column states, for a more comprehensive curriculum integrated with a laboratory type of learning."

• "Please note that as a courtesy to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, we submitted a letter dated Oct. 12, 1998 addressed to its president, Butch Canoy, informing them of the mechanics of the above-mentioned program."

• "Because we understand that there are those who may not be able to afford to pay the fee, we have worked out a system where those who are deserving can still participate in ABS-CBN’s highly specialized internship. Prior to the start of each program, the different colleges and universities submit a list of students who have been endorsed and evaluated by the faculty. Only then are we able to integrate and finalize the list of paying and non-paying participants."

• "Since the program’s inception, we have had an abundance of internship applicants, fee or no fee."