Get Smart

Smart Communications achieved phenomenal growth last year. Its 2003 revenues totalled a record-breaking P15-B. No wonder that PLDT, its parent firm, got voted as one of the best managed Asian firms. With such an achievement, the glory and the spotlight rests on Smart Pres. & CEO Napoleon "Poly" Nazareno. Poly, however, is not just about to rest on his laurels. This will drive him further on. The smart man behind the scenes is Smart Personal Communications & Mobile Services Division Head Anastacio "Boy" Martinez. Boy’s division has been greatly responsible in leading the charge for the firm’s phenomenal growth. Due to this, sources tell us that Smart is planning to offer an IPO by the end of the year. So if you want a piece of the lucrative telecom pie, Get Smart.

Roco upbeat

When the Supreme Court started hearings on FPJ’s eligibility to run, EyeSpy Dimasalang reported that Candidate Raul Roco was unusually upbeat. The war room meeting held last week was said to be very optimistic. Dimasalang even ventured that Roco must know something about how the Supreme Court might rule on the citizenship issue through his sources. At any rate, their dream forecast goes: FPJ will get disqualified; Senator Lacson gets to lead the opposition; GMA gets the backlash; Bro. Eddie Villanueva quits his campaign to support Roco; and Roco wins.

Problem parent

Ear-spies revealed that a daughter of a businessman (a distributor of an internationally-renowned brand of construction equipment) allegedly "committed suicide" recently because of a long-standing feud that she’s been having with her mother. According to our source, the daughter resented the fact that her mother, after separating from the businessman-husband a few years back, took the driver as her lover. Allegedly, the daughter also begrudged her mother for being an absentee parent. Ear-spies also heard that the mother and the driver went to the US to supposedly live there for good. However, for reasons unknown, the mother came back last year, acting as if nothing happened. The daughter has been waiting for her mother to explain why she abandoned them. The mother, it was heard, either gave her the cold shoulder or came down on her "like a ton of bricks." At one point, according to a personal friend of the deceased, the mother got so piqued that she even threatened her daughter’s life. The question is: when the daughter was found hanging in her room and gasping for life, the mother was nowhere in the house. Just a thought: the police should conduct a more serious crime-scene investigation on this matter.

It’s the peso, stupid

The opposition’s line is that at the height of the Jueteng Gate Scandal, the peso differential with the Thai baht was between P2 to P3. This was then called the Erap Factor. With regard to the dollar today, the baht trades less than P40 while the peso trades above P56. The peso has lost P16 to the baht in just over three years. And this, they ask, is GMA’s experience in economics and good governance. Last weekend, sources from the banking industry said that the dollar will stabilize soon. If the peso doesn’t make a slight recovery, the line that will be used against the administration will be similar to Clinton the candidate’s line against Pere Bush: It’s the peso, stupid.

Spy tid-biz

Our Supreme Court Spyring disclosed that FPJ will not be disqualified by the SC by a vote of 8 - 6. While this decision might not be popular with some sectors, it will set the proper tone for the 2004 presidential elections. The foreign election observer team will now have the opportunity to witness a real RP democratic exercise. Campaign contributors, who have temporarily turned off the funding spigots, can now make their decisions.

With this, it looks like the big fight is on.

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