Carissa’s promotion

Did you know 1: National Bookstore, Inc. headed by Socorro Ramos now requires consumers using their credit cards to first produce an ID, preferably a government issued one like driver’s license or passport.

It seems there are a lot of fraudulent and stolen credit cards going around.

* * *

Did you know 2: Even credit cards issued by the Philippine branch of foreign banks may not be acceptable when buying products online.

Mind you, a similar order using a credit card issued in the United States to be shipped to the same Philippine address would be accepted.

Then again, merchants anywhere in the world have the right to refuse payment by credit card.

* * *

Trade Secretary Peter Favila has moved up Assistant Secretary Carissa Cruz to be his chief of staff.

As everybody knows, Ms. Cruz is the stepdaughter of House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., with whom Mr. Favila is associated with.

Meanwhile, Undersecretary for regional operations Zeny Maglaya has been given the concurrent job of heading consumer welfare. Ms. Maglaya replaced Nelly Favis Villafuerte as regional head and Adrian Cristobal Jr. as consumer welfare head.

Ms. Villafuerte is now a member of the Monetary Board while Che Cristobal is executive director of the Intellectual Property Office.

* * *

Before his resignation as Finance Secretary, Cesar Purisima pushed for the appointment of Edwin Villanueva as president and chief executive officer of Trade and Investment Corporation of the Philippines (better known as Philexim) to replace Virgilio Aquino, who has been elected to the board of Philippine National bank.

Well, it seems current Finance Secretary Margarito Teves has no objections to that.

Traditionally, the Finance Secretary sits as chairman of Philexim.

* * *

Foreign investors have zeroed in on three lucrative areas in the country. These are:

• energy – on the one hand, the country has still lots of untapped reserves; on the other hand, the country faces a major power shortage as early as 2007;

• special purpose vehicles – assuming the time frame of the SPV Law can be extended, many banks would like to further clean up their portfolios by getting rid of their non-performing assets; and

• mining – opportunities remain tremendous in China (even if overheating might result in economic growth of less than 10 percent) as well as in other developed countries, like the United States, whose economies have started to pick up.