01.30.08
Ramon’s hotel Ang-le
NOW we have an idea why San Miguel Corp. president Ramon Ang prefers to stay at the Four Seasons whenever he is in Hong Kong.
Ang wants to build a Four Seasons-like hotel fronting Greenbelt in the abandoned GSIS property on Legaspi Street, in a joint venture by the San Miguel Properties with the Government Service Insurance System.
Ang, who already controls the bay-side Manila Diamond, said the joint venture wants to hire the Four Seasons architect, the Hong Kong-based Rocco Design, for the planned Greenbelt hotel.
ANG
But Ang apparently wants the planned local hotel to even top the luxe Hong Kong hotel, at least in expansiveness. Read the rest of this entry »
Tabloidish Tirol-ny
January 30, 2008
Saying that “the ombudsman does not run the paper,” referring to readers’ advocate Lorna Kalaw-Tirol, Inquirer editor-in-chief Leticia Jimenez-Magsanoc has thumbed down Tirol’s recommendation to suspend two editors and one reporter for a recent page-one boo-boo.
Tirol, along with opinion editor Jorge Aruta and associate editor Abelardo Ulanday, had recommended the suspension of managing editor Jose Ma. Nolasco, with whom Aruta has been feuding for years, and two others because of the boner.
The talk-of-the-trade embarrassment was caused when our favorite broadsheet-tabloid headlined that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was present when envelopes-full of cash were handed out in Malacañang to pro-administration local officials. Read the rest of this entry »
Not only had the Malacañang directors voted to give themselves real estate loans and luxury vehicles charged to a partially-sequestered, but publicly-owned corporation, one government nominee even ordered the company to purchase his imported hearing aid and pay for its annual maintenance.
According to recently-unearthed documents, Free Press publisher Enrique Locsin charged to Philcomsat Holdings Corp. P380,000-worth of hearing aid equipment and the special batteries needed every year for its auditorial enjoyment.
(Disclosure: Locsin has a libel complaint against the Manila Standard Today pending before Makati prosecutor Edgardo Hirang.)
01.28.08
Go-ing with the Coyiutos
January 28, 2008
The first big Chinoy wedding of the year was held all the way in Hong Kong yesterday, with the Coyiutos, of the insurance and Porsche-Audi fame, and the Gos of Sugarland fortune formally sealing their alliance with the marriage of Benedicto Coyiuto and Dana Richelle Go.
Despite gray skies and a brisk 13 degree-centigrade weather, the 200-strong contingent from Manila brought tropical cheer and a media buzz to the otherwise private ceremony, with the presence of deposed President Joseph Estrada as a wedding sponsor generating print and video coverage from the Associated Press, aside from the usual Philippine media.
No less than Cebu Cardinal Ricardo Vidal officiated the 2 p,m. wedding at the 120-year-old Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, with Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, who had civilly married the young couple back home, quietly watching on the sidelines. Read the rest of this entry »
A nearly bumpy flight
January 28, 2008
Edsa I and II advocate Ramon del Rosario Jr. thankfully took the first Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong on Saturday. Had he opted for the second flight, he would have been on the same section as former President Estrada, suffering from a sudden attack of stiff neck and perhaps near-sightedness.
As it turned out, the former Ramos finance secretary, along with the entire Del Rosario family, flew to the Chinese territory for the weekend to celebrate their mother’s birthday.
Someone who saw Milagros del Rosario swears that the matriarch was beaming at the prospects of a rare out-of-town celebration with her entire brood, probably even looking forward to taking a few furtive bites of crispy Peking duck skin despite the doctor’s advice. Read the rest of this entry »
Thelma Sioson-San Juan will re-assume the editorship of the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Lifestyle section on February 1, vice Chelo Banal-Formoso, who is being moved to edit a new Education page.
01.25.08
Locsin cuts deal, gets reinstated
January 25, 2008
FREE PRESS publisher and Masonic leader Enrique “Henry” Locsin has been reinstated as a Malacanang nominee to the publicly-listed Philcomsat Holdings, on the strength of a political commitment by President Arroyo to Locsin’s younger brother, Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., according to persons involved in the negotiations.
Henry Locsin was seen waiting at the Manila Peninsula lobby yesterday morning, as the new Philcomsat Holdings board were meeting in a function room, amid indications that he had already abandoned the Sandiganbayan lawsuit questioning his group’s replacement.
In the Sandigan the other day, Henry Locsin’s partner and main complainant, socialite Concepcion Poblador, was also a no-show, prompting the anti-graft court to reset the hearing to January 31. Read the rest of this entry »
Lifestyle changes
January 25, 2008
After the unceremonious retirement of Ethel Soliven as lifestyle editor of the Manila Bulletin, it is the turn of the Philippine Daily Inquirer to institute a rigodon in its own home.
According to the grapevine, Thelma San Juan is poised to return as lifestyle editor of our favorite broadsheet-tabloid, vice Chelo Banal-Formoso, who is being given another assignment at the behest of the owners, the Rufino-Prietos, who apparently want to improve the bottom-line contribution of the section.
San Juan was the lifestyle editor of the Inquirer until she was pirated by ABS-CBN Publishing nearly eight years ago. After growing the two-magazine, P30-million-a-year business into a 15-title empire now grossing P400 million a year, San Juan left the Lopez subsidiary late last year amid chemistry issues with her new boss, Jose Ramon “Monchet” Olives. Read the rest of this entry »
The Philippines received an unexpected worldwide publicity when no less than Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Neville Isdell paid tribute to the country’s improved economic fundamentals during a live interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo aired the other night from Davos.
Cash and Carry supermarket near the corner of Buendia and South Luzon Expressway has quietly and certifiedly been transformed into a mini-mall with the addition to two movie houses on its new, second floor.
Incidentally, the “two” floors are deceiving, because each floor has a loft-like mezzanine on top of each, thus giving the restaurants like the bi-level Luk Yuen and Teriyaki Boy an expansive feel not common to similar branches.
