“Gloria Arroyo and her spear-carriers in Malacañang should stop talking, speculating or mentioning the name of US President-elect Barack Obama.”
by Ducky Paredes
Complete annual hospital medical check-ups are never a pleasure. One is starved, pricked, given enemas and subjected to all sorts of inconvenient experiences. The best place to have this done, however, has to be St. Luke’s Hospital. Not only are the facilities first-class; the rooms have also been renovated to make one’s hospital experience a comfortable one. The equipment is also world-class.
I must commend St. Luke’s Wellness Center that handles hospital clients so well. Most of the people one meets are respectful and helpful, ready to answer questions and attend to every need. A patient feels like a guest or an old friend on a visit.
My visits to the hospital over the last decade have convinced me that St. Luke’s must be the best hospital in this part of the world. I have been having my annual medical in St. Luke’s for the last three years and the experience has been positive each time around. Give them a try; you won’t regret it.
* * *
From Tong Payumo, former congressman and SBMA Chairman comes this item as part of their ongoing dispute with Banco de Oro over first-refusal right in Maxicare: “Atty. Dindo delos Angeles, who was Corporate Secretary of Maxicare, was, earlier asked to surrender the Stock and Transfer Book of Maxicare to his former Assistant Corporate Secretary, Atty. Martin Samson.
“Since Atty. Dindo has not been officially informed that he was replaced as CorpSec’ (he was asked to leave at one point during a Board meeting), he asked that he be given a certified copy of the Board Resolution. But instead of furnishing Atty. Dindo the requested copy, Martin Samson went to the Securities and Exchange Commission to secure a second Stock and Transfer Book on the grounds that the original “was presumably lost,” and forthwith made an entry of the “sale”. Dindo, of course, had to present to the SEC the original Stock and Transfer Book to show that they were not lost and to request that the second book be cancelled.
“The SEC has since corrected itself by nullifying and canceling the second Stock and Transfer Book. We immediately thereafter filed a Motion for Reconsideration with the Judge and pointed out that the question has not been mooted because the second Stock and Transfer Book into which the sale to Pin-An Holdings has been entered was nullified and cancelled by the SEC.
“Did the Judge entertain our motion? Nah! He said that our motion is a prohibited pleading in an intracorporate dispute.”
That was not the end of that. BDO, through its appointed directors in Maxicare, also filed a case against Dindo for keeping the books of the company on his person (and not where they could get at it in the Maxicare offices). I am glad to read in the news that the Makati fiscal dismissed that case. According to the fiscal, a Corporate Secretary is charged with keeping the Stock and Transfer Book and this is exactly what Dindo did when he kept it. The Makati fiscal ruled that a Corporate Secretary can keep the books wherever he feels they are safe.
* * *
The Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. (Philreca) notes that most electric cooperatives (EC) are currently offering electricity cheaper than the rates offered by private utilities, especially the Manila Electric Company. How do they do this? Their operation does not require them to post any return on investment, as has been the practice for privately-run corporate utilities.
EC operations are “revenue-neutral”, meaning they are not entitled to “income allowance” in their rates as measured via the return on rate base (RORB) for the private utilities.
“The ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) just allows us to recover any adjustment in our costs of operations or equipment upgrades, but there’s no provision for income, that’s why many cooperatives offer rates that are cheaper than Meralco,” says an EC manager.
Thus, the Philreca comments that bills now before Congress that allows private individuals and corporations to take over ECs send dangerous signals because “we believe that these will ultimately pave the way for the take-over of all electric cooperatives by certain sectors with vested interests.”
Would that it were possible for Meralco clients to form a cooperative that could take over the company. Then, perhaps, we would finally be getting our money’s worth when we pay our electric bills!
* * *
Gloria Arroyo and her spear-carriers in Malacanang should stop talking, speculating or mentioning the name of US President-elect Barack Obama. Every time they do so only underlines the wrong impression that the new master of the western world spurns our country’s leader.
This can’t be so but every action of Malacañang seems to prove that it is so. Imagine staying overnight in Chicago on the pretext of meeting with the Filipino community while on the US on a lighting-quick trip to the United Nations in New York to attend a Saudi-Arabia- sponsored interfaith dialogue! How transparent she is – like some spurned lover looking for any excuses to catch a fleeting glimpse of her desired one.
Even when he was chosen as the Democratic Party candidate, Gloria chased Barack all over Washington, D.C. and, for her effort, only got a pro-forma letter on the history of our countries’ historical friendship.
He did not return her call congratulating him on his becoming President-elect. Was there something in her message that he found offensive? Why did he return the call of nine heads of state (out of the hundreds that called him) but not that of Gloria? Unless she said something stupid in that message, which is highly unlikely, she ought to take a page our of Barack’s playbook and remain as cool and patient as he was throughout his campaign.
Clearly, the Philippines, while a true friend of the US, is a tiny bleep on the Obama radar. Those nine country leaders Barack called back are larger bleeps.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita says: “President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is confident that the incoming presidency of US President-elect Barack Obama will (hold) much promise in ushering in an era of enhanced relations between the Philippines and the US.”
Though Ermita has nothing to show to prove his statement, he is probably right. After all, countries do not change overnight just because a new leader has been chosen.
* * *
“The solution is not the military, but the problem cannot be solved without the military. Negotiations are not just all about talking, but also it’s about fighting.” — Retired Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, executive director of the Presidential Commission on the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement and former Southern Command chief on achieving peace in Mindanao.
# # # #
hvp 11.14.08)
Post a Comment