A civilized shouting match

Energy Secretary Vicente Perez Jr. recently exchanged sharp words with Manila Electric Co. director and head of regulatory office Christian Monsod.

Being both civilized, the heated discussion centered around whether Chris Monsod was already in the room when Vince Perez started his presentation rather than on whether DoE is indeed pushing for congressional amendments to the energy deregulation law.

As everybody knows, Mr. Monsod is a former chairman of the Commission on Elections and the quiet husband of former National Economic Development Authority director-general Solita Collas-Monsod.

Mr. Perez can now add the honorific, Commander (in the reserves), to his name. Mr. Perez’s alma mater, Ateneo de Manila University, is traditionally assigned to the air force officer corps in case of war. Alumni of De La Salle University are the ones who are assigned to the navy.

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Did you know 1: Before buying into those bargain $89 package tours to Hong Kong, read the small print.

At least one such tour include a non-inclusive trip across the China border (which you cannot say and must not say no to) at eyebrow-raising prices.

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Did you know 2: Most of the dollars being purchased by commercial banks – including those based in Binondo – are sourced from those itsy-bitsy foreign exchange shops in Malate, Manila.

If Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Alberto Reyes were to get the chance to be invited to the backroom of these shops, he’d see all those greenbacks carelessly stashed in boxes on the floor or peeking out of the filing cabinets (or being used as, uh, reading material if these places had a wash room).

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Did you know 3: To make sure he doesn’t make a fool of himself, Sen. Ralph Recto took a short course on capital markets at the Asian Institute of Management.

Nobody – certainly not Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Lilia Bautista – has had the nerve, since then to tell Mr. Recto that a short course is not, uh, the same as a two-year graduate program on how to best develop the country’s capital markets.

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During Nestlé Phils., Inc.’s SINAG day last Saturday, executive vice-president for the technical division John Jessup spoke some hilariously mangled Filipino words. The Australian threatens to say his speech completely in Filipino five years from now – the same number of years it took him to learn Bahasa while based in Malaysia.

SINAG, the acronym for Structured Implementation of Nestlé’s Activities for Growth, started out with quality circles 10 years ago. About 55 percent of the company’s employees – all at the company’s six factories nationwide; seven if you include Nestlé Water, which is a subsidiary of Perrier – are involved in the program.

The objective of president and chief executive officer Salvador Pigem is to bring SINAG to head office as well.