Boatload of prostitutes

In an effort to tap the market of Korean honeymooners, Philippine Airlines president Avelino Zapanta has okayed twice a week chartered flights from Seoul directly to Puerto Princesa in Palawan this month and next.

At an average of 500 people per flight, that’s 1,000 Koreans spending four days (and whatever cash they brought with them) in Palawan before they fly home.

By the way, PAL is marketing Palawan the same way Cebu has marketed itself abroad – as an island in the Pacific rather than as part of the Philippines.

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Bank notes 1: Citibank’s Philippine head for consumer banking Nina Aguas is launching this week a new product aimed at extending (to a lesser degree of course) the kind of financial advice/consultancy given as a matter of course to high net worth individuals to clients with income a couple of notches down (read: middle-income bracket).

Unless Ms. Aguas changes the branch rules, Citi’s definition of this new market is probably those with a disposable income of P100,000 – the minimum amount the bank will accept to open a savings account deposit.

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Bank notes 2: One of these days, HSBC (Phils.), chief executive officer Warner Manning will probably have to eavesdrop on his people who follow up cardholders on their delinquent accounts and check on their phone manners.

After all, these people will probably form the nuclei of the call center that will service the regional business process outsourcing needs of HSBC starting sometime this third quarter.

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Things you might want to know I: In an emergency, denim pants – you have to take it off, though – can serve as a temporary buoy or life-saver at sea.

This is one of the tricks which Dos Palmas Arreceffi Inc., the developer and manager of the same-named resort, teaches the communities around it under its neighborhood emergency services team or NEST program.

So successful has Dos Palmas’ good-neighbor program been that it has been quickly informed of movements towards the resort, such as a boatload of prostitutes, uh, invited by R&R American members of the Balikatan. Well, that boat never reached the resort.

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Things you might want to know 2: Instead of using synthetic extracts for herbal soaps, Leng Aveno teaches her students at UltimaPinoy to use the real thing.

For example, papaya soap is more effective if juice is extracted from unripe or green papaya (think of achara without the vinegar and raisins on your face and body). Ripe papaya is not recommended because there’s not that much juice that can be extracted.

Oh yes, Ms. Aveno also makes milk soap. Unlike Cleopatra, who bathed with fresh milk, Ms. Aveno claims Alaska evaporated milk, without sugar, is a good beauty substitute.