A FRIEND had this horror story to tell. It started with his e-mail address, which was obviously hijacked. At any rate, the mailing list of this friend received a standard message asking for help. It seemed a friend was currently on a work-related trip to the United Kingdom. All his money and passport were stolen in the hotel where he was staying; he wanted to borrow 1,650-pound sterling to cover his hotel bills and airfare back home but any amount would help.

Money should be sent via Western Union to a specific address (read: 26 Cole St., Lancashire, Blackburn), which does not sound like the address of a hotel, much less his room number.

Once the remittance is sent, details of the transaction must be relayed to the e-mail address because, well, he incidentally forgot to bring his mobile phone with him to the United Kingdom.

By the way, this friend is very much in the country and has no immediate plans to visit the United Kingdom. He found out about the scam when a friend called him (read: obviously, the friend couldn’t believe he didn’t have his mobile phone with him) to confirm his predicament. And yes, he has changed his e-mail address after informing everybody in his mailing list of the scam.

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DID you know 1:  There are currently 59 direct flights (read: make that 61 next month when Qatar Airways adds two more weekly flights) and 44 indirect flights a week from Manila to the Middle East. As everybody knows, about 3,000 Filipinos leave for the Middle East every day.

Given such numbers, even Philippine Airlines (PAL) is seriously thinking of resuming its Middle East flights. Then again, PAL stopped such flights 10 years ago because it claims Middle East-based airlines offer “dumping” or cheaper prices that it could not compete with.  

DID you know 2:  The entry price for doctors in Asian Hospital and Medical Center is P4 million. At Makati Medical Center, it’s about P2.5 million. The entry price is, of course, the cost of setting up a clinic in the hospital annex, which enables the doctor to practice in the hospital.

To get around the stiff entry price, two to four doctors split the cost of a clinic and just maintain separate clinic hours.

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Forget the scheduled August 2008 reopening of the Alabang viaduct portion of the South Luzon Expressway. Right now, operator of South Luzon Tollway Corp. (SLTC), which is headed by Isaac David, is thinking of Christmas this year. 

The 28-kilometer Alabang to Calamba rehabilitation is a first for expressway in 30 years and comes in three parts. The Alabang portion will increase the six existing lanes to eight. The second phase, from Filinvest to Calamba, is scheduled to be completed before summer officially starts in 2009, while the third phase, which links Calamba to the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road, will be competed in September 2010.

As everybody knows, SLTC’s foreign partner in this project is Malaysian company MTD Capital Berhad.

FOOD and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) plans to further strengthen its presence in Indochina. This, as a company official revealed that preparations are underway to put up this year beer and liquor-manufacturing facilities in three countries in that region to take advantage of the growing markets there.

Inflation brings jitters to Manulife Insurance

RISING prices has shaken the confidence of the country’s largest publicly-listed company in terms of market capitalization.

IT looks like ethical drug giant United Laboratories Inc. (Unilab) is preparing for the surge in demand for medicines that is expected to be brought about by the still-unsigned Cheaper Medicines Law.

THE massive earthquake that hit central China early this month has no impact on the mall operations there of the Sy-led SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPH).

ISM Communications Corp. (ISM) is building a cable backhaul facility in Nasugbu, Batangas for its subsidiary Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc. (ETPI) to better serve the phone firm’s corporate clients.

The new owners of generation assets formerly owned by the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) must be given the flexibility to choose where to source their fuel requirements.

A FRIEND had this horror story to tell. It started with his e-mail address, which was obviously hijacked. At any rate, the mailing list of this friend received a standard message asking for help. It seemed a friend was currently on a work-related trip to the United Kingdom.