Optimist or loser?

Wellex Group chairman William Gatchalian is such a cock-eyed optimist.

Why, he continues to bet on his game at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club, losing up to P500,000 each time his game unravels even when he is careful to choose whom he plays with.

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Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus has been into bridges lately that his friends have suggested he would probably be of better use at the Department of Public Works and Highways.

As everybody knows, Mr. De Jesus has implemented this year a modified bridging program for grade six students going into high school, which would, in the long run, increase the number of combined years spent in grade school and high school from the current 10 to 11 – the same number of pre-college years as Laos and Myanmar. (Other Asian countries follow the 12 years model of the United States and Europe).

Mr. De Jesus points out the bridging program would improve the competencies in reading, math, and science of grade six students, 99.4 percent of whom fall below set standards, at subsidized government rates.

The alternative is to continue implementing the remedial lessons at the college level, where the first two years are basically a review of high school, and which are 100 percent borne by parents.

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Bank notes 1: There's talk that Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. headed by Ricardo Tan is seriously moving out of Makati. One of the leased sites being looked into is the Bay Area.

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Bank notes 2: On the one hand, Government Service Insurance System headed by president and general manager Winston Garcia has one of the country's best collections of Philippine art – including that P47-million painting by Juan Luna.

On the other hand, the pension fund has one of the most pathetic libraries in the country. The so-called library has a couple of law books and encyclopedia and some tally looking Danielle Steele pocketbooks.

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Bank notes 3: Philippine National Bank president Lorenzo Tan will play host to previous PNB president during the bank's 88th anniversary this July 22. Mr. Tan is, of course, the first president under the bank's latest rehabilitation program that started in 2002.

Previous to that, the bank went through a rehabilitation in 1986 presided by Vicente Jayme, whose Ateneo group jointly founded the Private Development Corp. of the Philippines with the World Bank in the 1960s. In its heydays, PDCP was the country's biggest private sector development bank, which included now Sen. Manuel Villar among its employees.

Other PNB presidents include Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom Edgardo Espiritu, former Urban Bank chairman and chief executive officer Arsenio Bartolome III, former Bangko Sentral Governor Gabriel Singson, and current Philippine Stock Exchange director Peter Favila.