First, second, and third

Former Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit is packing his bags for a job which the World Health Organization created for him in Geneva. The job is basically HR but, sigh, has nothing to do with recruitment and everything to do with consultancy.

Mr. Dayrit, who starts work on Aug. 1, is the classmate in medical school of current Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

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As early as end-2005, Bank of the Philippine Islands may be the country’s largest commercial bank, followed by Banco de Oro Universal Bank and Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. As everybody knows, Metrobank is the current number one – to the constant delight of chairman George S.K. Ty.

BPI president and chief executive officer Aurelio Montinola III is said to be in the final stages of negotiations with Alfonso Yuchengco for the purchase of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. The negotiations are pretty hush-hush (read: absolute disavowal should there be any leakages).

Yes, BPI – one of three pillars of Ayala Corp. – has made some moves on RCBC before but Al Yuchengco wasn’t interested then.

Well, Mr. Yuchengco is said to have had a change of heart. For one, none of his children – except for Alfonso Yuchengco III, who has since resigned – have the commitment and stature to run the bank. For another (and, mind you, this is just talk), the bank might unwittingly be dragged in should a potential class suit filed by planholders of Pacific Plans Inc. prosper. Pacific Plans is also majority owned by Mr. Yuchengco, who extended the pre-need company a personal loan of P250 million to partially meet first semester 2005 tuition obligations

In the case of BDO, everybody knows that its majority owner, mall magnate Henry Sy, has been on a buying spree. Through his companies, Mr. Sy is now the single largest stockholder of China Banking Corp.

Last month, Mr. Sy concluded the purchase of United Overseas Bank (Phils.), which started out as a partnership between a top three Singapore bank and the group of former Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu called Westmont Bank until the Singaporean partner decided to go it alone after the bank was hit by the financial problems of Westmont Investment Corp. (which Ed Espiritu put up without UOB-Singapore participation).

This Tuesday, Mr. Sy is expected to finally get his foot inside the door of Equitable PCI Bank, after more than a year’s wait.

At that time, Mr. Sy entered into, again, a hush-hush deal with Social Security System president and chief executive officer Corazon de la Paz to buy the 25 percent plus stake of the pension fund in E-PCIB. That deal didn’t push through, in part because the E-PCI board chaired by Antonio Go quashed it as being too one-sided.

Well, BDO president Nestor Tan has since sweetened the deal enough that the Government Service Insurance System, which is headed is Winston Garcia, may also be tempted to sell its own 12-percent stake.

Now, this Tuesday, the pension funds are going for the head of Tony Go for many reasons, not one of which has to do with Mr. Sy.