Everybody but his mother

Did you know 1: Everybody in a society party made side bets on how much the necklace and earrings set of this lady cost. The highest price quoted was $1 million. It turns out the lady – yes, a local – bought those huge bling-blings at $6 million or roughly the cost of a building along Ayala Ave. At least, that’s the number quoted by her jeweler.

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Did you know 2: Okay, so Monetary Board chairman Rafael Buenaventura has had to come up with a more creative reason why it approved the rehabilitation plan of Philippine Bank of Communications (which includes money extended by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp).

In the cases of Philippine National Bank and United Coconut Planters Bank, Paeng Buenaventura cited possible systemic failure, which made sense because the two banks are among the country’s seven largest banks.

In the case of PBCom, a medium-sized bank with a capital base that is less than some savings and development banks, Paeng Buenaventura decided to say as little as possible.

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Chowking Food Corp. president Rufino dela Rosa just got back from China where he was asked by his boss, Jollibee Foods Corp. president Tony Tan Caktiong, to look into the operational set-up of newest acquisition, Yonghe Food (and suggest ways to improve it).

Yes, Raffy dela Rosa has been asked if he’d like to be assigned to China.

No, he didn’t accept because, for one, he thinks he’s too old to start all over again (and in a different country, at that) and, for another, he’d rather concentrate on building the Chowking brand (which intends to grow its current 250-outlet chain by at least 24 by end-2004).

Besides, the taste profile of Chowking, which is basically Chinese food the way Filipinos like it, is different from Yonghe. And when you get down to it, the taste and menu of Yonghe is different from one Chinese province to another. For example, the Beijing outlets are heavy on congee while those of Shanghai favor noodles. Of course, the outlets in southern China push rice dishes.

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After a long but quiet apprenticeship (where he had to prove to everybody but his mother that he was the most qualified man for the job), First Generation Holdings Corp. president Federico Lopez is becoming more visible these days as a spokesman of the private sector in the energy industry.

Piki Lopez’s style is to do his homework – identifying key issues and problems – and then to suggest short-term and long-term solutions.

As everybody knows, FirstGen is the holding company of the Lopez group’s power businesses, except for Manila Electric Co.

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This is an educational innovation. The Yuchengco-owned Mapua Institute has just signed a deal with Industrial Technology Development Institute director Ernesto Lozada, which allows Mapua engineering students to use the facilities of ITDI at the Department of Science of Technology compound in their project-homework.