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SO the
country’s latest monthly inflation rate was 12 percent
but, hey, Vietnam’s rate is 18 percent and it’s still
the darling of the Asian Development Bank and the World
Bank.
Old-timers remember inflation hitting over 60 percent
after the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr. during the
waning years of then President Ferdinand Marcos.
Then-Central Bank governor Jose Fernandez Jr. wasn’t
very popular as he mopped up excess liquidity (read: at
more than 60-percent interest, it was cheaper and safer
to invest in government bonds rather than invest in
manufacturing plants, leading to the closure of
factories and the laying off of workers), but not many
people knew that he used to carry an Argentinian bill in
his wallet and he would look at it every day to remind
him that the Philippines should not go the way of
Argentina during his watch. At that time, Argentina’s
inflation grew so fast that wives would wait outside
their husband’s workplace during paydays so they could
rush to the grocery store and/or market before the
prices of goods increased.
****
Did you
know 1:
It seems Pacita Juan has opted to spend more time with
the Figaro Coffee Foundation rather than running the
coffee chain that she cofounded. That, of course, is not
surprising since Chit Juan has, from the start, been the
company’s “face” for corporate social responsibility, as
well as being the current president of the League of
Corporate Foundations.
Juan is
currently in the United States on a three-week
international visitor leadership program for women and
entrepreneurs organized by the US State Department.
Did you
know 2:
Sharon Cuneta is the most expensive celebrity endorser
in town, followed by Aga Muhlach, Kris Aquino and
Cuneta’s daughter KC Concepcion.
Sharon,
who certainly doesn’t need pin money from husband Sen.
Francis Pangilinan, is said to charge about P15 million
for first-time accounts and P8 million for repeat
clients.
Did you
know 3:
The
Department of Labor and Employment estimates there are
400,000 job vacancies abroad. Of that number, the Middle
East has pending job orders (read: these cannot be met)
for 150,000 unskilled workers.
Right
now, the fill-up rate for the recruitment industry is
only 40 percent.
Did you
know 4:
Local demand for salad vegetables is so high (read:
remember that it’s the rainy season) that entrepreneur
Lyndon Tan, whose company currently supplies 90 percent
of the salad greens requirement of restaurants and
hotels, has had to prioritize his clients.
The
hotels get first crack at his lettuce, arugula, spinach
and even cherry tomatoes; then come the high-end
restaurants which are willing to pay a premium.
Fast-food chains, which have been trying to provide
patrons with more healthy options, are at the bottom of
the food chain, and that shows in their unappetizing
wilted greens.
****
There’s
talk that Land Bank of the Philippines president Hilda
Pico is on the lookout for a crisis public relations
consultant to handle the fallout of the bank’s
syndicated swine loan to Quedan Rural Credit and
Guaranty Corp. (Quendancor). As everybody knows,
LandBank already maintains its own internal PR staff as
well as the services of an external PR company.
Sadly,
Quedancor president Nelson Buenaflor doesn’t have that
kind of money. Equally said, Buenaflor’s other
achievements have been swept under the rug. Surely, on
top of that list is his adaptation of the Grameen model
to the Filipino culture, resulting in repayment rates in
the high 90 percent, both among the urban poor and
Muslim seaweed farmers, and the resulting significant
improvement in their standard of living.
Some
African countries have even shown interest in the
country’s Grameen-like model. |
