No, Jaime Panganiban isn’t converting to Islam although he will become president of Al-Amanah Bank once the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) gains control of the Islamic Bank in a couple of months. Said another way, DBP, which already owns 10 percent of the bank, will buy the shares of the national government (70 percent), the Government Service Insurance System (10 percent), and the Social Security System (10 percent).

Panganiban is currently DBP’s consultant for treasury but has had extensive experience working with foreign banks. More importantly, he grew up dirt poor in Muslim Mindanao and, through brains and hard work, now has the means to pay forward.

Word of the reinvigorated bank has spread pretty fast. A case in point is Taguig, which has offered to lease an entire building to Al-Amanah Bank for a peso a year. As everybody knows, Taguig has the largest Muslim community in Metro Manila.

Interestingly, government has been trying to sell the bank for the longest time and there were no takers despite its universal bank license, its eight branches, its possible linkages to the Middle East, where many Filipino work, and its being the sole shari’a  (read: interest free-lending) bank in the country.

Did you know 1: According to former Senator Kit Tatad, the country’s mutual defense agreement with the United States is limited to any foreign attack on Philippine territory as defined by the 1898 agreement where Spain sold the Philippines to the US for $20-million (read: that’s equivalent to the Americans paying a dollar for each Filipino then). Oh yes, that agreement automatically covers any attack on the country’s Pacific seaboard but not from the South China Sea.

Unfortunately, the Spratly island group—that the Philippines is contesting with six other countries—is not covered by the 1898 agreement and is not on the Pacific side.

Did you know 2: Rosario Santos Concio spent her entire first week as ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. president and chief operating officer in Dubai. This is her first working week in Manila.

As everybody knows, ABS-CBN is aggressively setting up a presence in countries with huge OFW communities.

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) head Marianito Roque is pretty excited by the possible establishment of an Overseas Filipino Workers bank that he will, of course, chair.

Right now, the concept is being vetted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

As proposed, the existing Philippine Postal Savings Bank will be renamed Philippine Overseas Postal Bank after OWWA invests P1 billion in preferred shares and government financial institutions put in another P700 million.

Land Bank of the Philippines will manage the proposed bank.

Bayan Telecommunications Inc. (Bayan), the phone company of the Lopez group, paid a total of P2.339 billion in obligations as of end-December, chief financial officer Meldin Roy said Thursday.

SEC gives SMB Inc.’s April IPO the greenlight

THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved during a regular en banc meeting Thursday, the application of San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB Inc.) to go public in April.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) marks its 67th anniversary with the launch of its regular service to Chongqing today, the first direct air link between Manila and scenic southwestern China.

THE Court of Appeals (CA) has issued a restraining order (TRO) for two months versus a ruling that banned listed Oriental Peninsula Resources Group from operating its mine in Sofronio, Española in Palawan.

No, Jaime Panganiban isn’t converting to Islam although he will become president of Al-Amanah Bank once the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) gains control of the Islamic Bank in a couple of months.