Nobody knew who really started it but, at the end of the night, former finance undersecretary Milwida Guevara was P13,000 richer. The amount- of mostly P100 bills- was a response to her speech as the Haydee Yorac awardee that even P100 will go a long way to help a child get a better education.

(Okay, okay, fingers point to guys from Manila Electric Co., one of two institutions behind the annual award for public service and the owner of Meralco Theater, where the awarding was held last week).

At the Department of Finance, Nene Guevara was known as the country’s No.1 tax expert. It was, however, through her advocacy to improve the level of elementary education, particular math skills, that she found personal fulfillment and public recognition.

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It seems Immigration and Deportation Commissioner Marcelino Libanan will be looking more closely at the working documents of foreign architects and interior designers doing business in the country.

As everybody knows, foreigners who earn money on Philippine soil must have a work permit from the Department of Labor and Employment and, in the case of professionals—architects and interior designers doing business for megarich real-estate projects—must be licensed by the Professional Regulation Commission.

Oh, yes, they must also pay Philippine taxes.

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Did you know 1: Now that it’s been, well, temporarily closed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the “escort service” has moved to Cebu.

Basically, the service (read: for a fee, of course) is extended to Filipino workers with fuzzy travel documents headed for Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Did you know 2: Based on the 2006-07 national aptitude test given to sophomores, the three best public high schools in the country (read: these have 400 examinees or more) are Looc High School in Romblon; Esperanza High School in Sultan Kudarat; and Dolores High School in Eastern Samar.

Did you know 3: Pilot training schools have been sprouting all over, the result of an increase in the number of Indian students. Right now, there are about 1,000 Indians in the country learning how to fly.

Their goal, of course, is to return to India and find high-paying jobs as airline pilots for provincial/regional runs.

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Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. chief executive officer Sandy Flockhart was about 25 years old—just four years after finishing law school—when he first visited the country. It was a short trip to Cebu to play golf.

Flockhart made his second visit to the country last week and found the country’s pace “less frenetic” but certainly more profitable, as he expects Mark Wadkinson, head of HSBC in the Philippines, to deliver $100 million a year. That, of course, fits in nicely with Flockhart’s desire for bank-wide consistency in delivering services to its many stakeholders the world over.

THE goal of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Group this year is to add at least 5 million mobile phone subscribers and about half a million for broadband.

Six PSEi stocks among last week’s losers

KEPPEL Philippines Holdings Inc. was the market’s biggest gainer last week. It traded only for two days: March 4, when it opened and closed at P1.80 on a turnover of P63,000; and March 3, when it traded at P1.56 throughout the session on a turnover of P54,600.

A MONTH after saying it wants to invest here, Radiant Studios, the local unit of US-based Radiant ERA Holdings Llc., kicked off its first film project costing P200 million ($5 million).

ISRAELI robotics company InRob Tech Ltd. announced it would set up shop in Makati City, where its Philippine partner, CP Communication Services Inc. (CP Comm), operates.

LAST week: Stock prices tumbled Friday on fears of rising inflation and an economic recession in the US.

Nobody knew who really started it but, at the end of the night, former finance undersecretary Milwida Guevara was P13,000 richer. The amount- of mostly P100 bills- was a response to her speech as the Haydee Yorac awardee that even P100 will go a long way to help a child get a better education.