Where is P-Noy dining in New York?

It would have been a PR coup for P-Noy to dine at Jollibee in Queens, New York. But some non-thinking bureaucrat working on his schedule was reported to have scratched it out. He reportedly didn’t want to offend the other taipans and captains of industry whose invitations for P-Noy to have dinner with them couldn’t all be accepted.

Too bad there is this failure to realize that Jollibee is different. P-Noy probably needs to be seen in Jollibee Queens more than Jollibee needs him to be there. Having P-Noy there is good for P-Noy’s image. P-Noy will strike a sharp contrast to the Le Cirque image of Ate Glue dining in luxury at our expense.

And if the mentally challenged bureaucrat was worried that having P-Noy in a hoi polloi Jollibee outlet is demeaning for a President, just think of Barack Obama. The President of the world’s only superpower is constantly dropping by Ray’s Hell Burger, a greasy hamburger joint in Washington. He even brought Russian President Medvedev there for lunch.

There is also something endearing about our head of state dining in a Jollibee outlet abroad. Jollibee is a national champion of sorts. Jollibee has unfurled the flag of Philippine entrepreneurship in many foreign lands. It has also beaten and continues to beat McDonald’s here, in its home market. In the local hamburger wars, Jollibee is Lapu Lapu to McDonald’s Magellan.

I am not a big fan of Jollibee but seeing a Jollibee outlet abroad somehow makes a red blooded Pinoy fill up with nationalistic pride for the local brand that has done good. My US-based children and grandson love Jollibee and would normally go to a Jollibee outlet here straight from NAIA when they come home to visit. There are Jollibee outlets where they are, but somehow the local Chicken Joy is supposed to be superior. Perhaps, our native chickens are tastier than the factory-reared chickens in America. And the hamburgers here are more langhap sarap! 

What the organizers of P-Noy’s schedule should be careful of is having P-Noy have fancy dinners in fancy places with some of the taipans he is traveling with. In the age of Facebook and the smart phone, it would be difficult to hide such dinners from inquisitive Pinoys who are addicted enough to Facebook or Twitter to instantly report it. We all know Pinoys are everywhere these days.

Any fancy dinners in fancy places, even if the government is not going to pay a centavo for it, will knock P-Noy off the moral high ground from which he can view the unlamented reign of his predecessor. If the PR handlers of P-Noy know their business, they will keep his dinners, public or private, as simple and as meaningful as possible.

Other than Jollibee in Queens, it would be great if P-Noy dropped by another highly noted Filipino restaurant in New York owned and managed by my former UP classmate Amy Besa and her husband Romy Dorotan. Romy is the chef-owner of Purple Yam in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. He was the chef at Cendrillon, a Filipino restaurant he co-owned and managed with wife Amy in downtown New York that closed last year.

Cendrillon and now Purple Yam are known for serving traditional Filipino dishes as well as those that have been influenced by the cultures of other countries such as Spain, Mexico, and the United States. No less than the New York Times gave Cendrillon a rave review.

On the west coast, P-Noy can have his choice of Pinoy restaurants there. The one I can recommend because I enjoyed my meals there is Tribu in San Bruno. There is also a Jollibee in downtown San Francisco in a very prime location next to the Moscone Convention Center. My daughter loves it that it is just walking distance from her apartment. Last time I was there, I was glad to note that it is being patronized not just by Pinoys.

Also somewhat close to where P-Noy will be staying in San Jose is Gerry’s Grill in Union City. It is owned and managed by the same folks who run Gerry’s Grill here in Manila and features the same menu. Tribu and Gerry’s Grill have both become favorites because of the excellent food… no compromises in Pinoy taste.

If P-Noy wants to keep his unpretentious image in sharp contrast to Ate Glue’s he should stick with Jollibee and the other Filipino restaurants in New York and the Bay Area. Actually, that will be more Noynoy anyway. He isn’t the Le Cirque type. I heard he gave instructions to keep his official schedule only up to 7 p.m. P-Noy doesn’t drink like Erap so hopefully, we will not be getting reports of him painting the town red like we did two presidents ago.

And while on the subject of the New York visit, I hope P-Noy is burning the midnight oil trying to understand those thick folders of backgrounders. Better still, he should spend time not just with the experts at the DFA but also with people like FVR, former Ambassador to the UN Hilario Davide, former Sen. Lety Shahani, former Ambassador to the US Albert del Rosario and former Foreign Secretary Bobby Romulo.

They all have a wealth of information and suggestions that cannot be contained in briefing folders that will help P-Noy navigate the dangerous waters of international politics. International diplomacy is something new to P-Noy and he cannot over prepare for this trip. He can’t afford any mishaps there because the country’s honor and integrity is on the line.

Hot money

Contrary to the impression I might have given with my column last Wednesday, I like hot money, personally, that is. Because of hot money, my investment in a Sun Life mutual fund that miserably sunk two years ago is now above water and rising. I guess I was just trying to present hot money from a national interest perspective when I wrote that it is not all good.

Nevertheless, I want to share the view of reader Noel Manalo because he also raised very good points on why hot money is good for the country.

Contrary to the knee-jerk reactions of psychologically authoritarian regulators of underdeveloped countries like the Philippines, hot money is not a bad thing.

Actually, it is a good thing.

Who else would be the first subscribers of public offerings of companies, except their present stockholders, of which a large percentage are the “hot money” investors?

As long as stockholders, local or foreign, are happy with the prices of their stocks, they would be happy to subscribe to these companies’ public offerings.

Think of this now as new direct investment, of which a large percentage is foreign in origin.

As you know, public offerings are the cheapest way for a company to raise funds for expansion — to create more jobs — because they don’t pay any interest on the funds raised.

Regulators in underdeveloped countries like ours — because of traditional, hidebound ways of thinking — are psychologically authoritarian in thinking. If they don’t fully understand something, they restrict it.

They have to fight their old, hidebound psychological reactions and allow free capital markets to thrive.

Why would “hot money” investors — who are all strong potential subscribers to public offerings of companies — come in in the first place, if they can’t bring their money out at any time?

Would you invest in a country that has no assurances that you can bring your money out any time?

Why are the US and Singapore such attractive places to invest in? Because you can bring your money out any time, no questions asked.

Restrictions on capital flows are the mark of an immature, underdeveloped country that does not understand how to do business with the rest of the world.

By not putting restrictions on capital inflows and outflows, paradoxically, we will attract more capital.

Three wishes

From Jose Villaescusa.

A man found a Genie who, grateful for his release from the bottle, granted him three wishes. The man replied, “Just provide me with all the things I lack.”

So, the Genie found that he had been going hungry the past few weeks, so he gave the man his own chain of RESTAURANTS, so he would never go hungry again.

Of course, the reason that he had been going hungry was because he had no more money, so the Genie gave him his own BANK.

The Genie then noticed that with the restaurants and the bank, the man had no more problems… so he gave him a WIFE!

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. This and other past columns may be accessed at www.boochanco.net