Atrocious adoration chapel

Did you know 1: Hong Kong-based First Pacific Group head Manuel Pangilinan is scouting around for a chief financial officer.

As everybody knows, First Pacific, which has the controlling interest in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., is eyeing some acquisitions in the region that are not related to PLDT.

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Did you know 2: The church of Miagao, Iloilo – one of four World Heritage church sites in the country – has an atrocious adoration chapel (with the, gasp!, crenellated walls of a castle) that was added to it.

By the way, Anna Maria Harper, one of the founders of the Heritage Conservation Society, has an interesting suggestion for parish priests of churches of historic value which need a lot of money to maintain these churches. Bambi Harper suggests the convent adjoining the church could be leased out to the private sector as bed and breakfast inns.

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Did you know 3: Andok’s jumbo chicken that sells for P199 in Metro Manila retails for P250 in Boracay.

There’s talk (mostly tongue-in-cheek) that McDonald’s may soon put up an outlet, considering that Golden Arches Development Corp. chairman George Yang is already investing a lot of money in the island.

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Did you know 4: The recent computer hacking incident at International School Manila wasn’t the first time the three seniors (who have been identified with the incident) have gotten away with it.

You see, the students got test questions rather easily. They simply, well, wined and dined the teacher, who inadvertently gave out his/her computer password.

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Did you know 5: Greenhills Shopping Center’s new cinema complex adjacent to The Promenade – billed as an international center for the arts by the partner of Ortigas Limited Partnership Co. – is behind schedule but opened last Thursday, nevertheless, with the sixth of the "Star Wars’ series: "The Revenge of the Sith".

Unfortunately, the closest wash rooms – similarly sized to the ones found in airplanes except the locks don’t seem to work – are outside the work-in-progress complex.

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Comparisons between the ongoing rehabilitation programs of Philippine National Bank and United Coconut Planters Bank are inevitable, considering that Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. president Richardo Tan has placed directors in both banks to safeguard government’s interests.

Then again, PNB is already in the black while UCPB continues to struggle, in part because PNB is a joint venture between government and the private sector while UCPB is, well, government’s play.

As everybody knows, the national government and Lucio Tan have equal shares in publicly listed PNB while UCPB’s 15-man board has 10 directors nominated by the Presidential Commission on Good Government and five (including chairman Jose Perez and president Jose Querubin by PDIC.