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THERE’S
talk that Seaoil Petroleum Corp. is phasing out diesel
sales before the end of the year. You see, diesel is
priced lower than regular gas here because of government
subsidies to public- utility vehicles.
By the
way, the Filipino company is currently retailing a
fuel-hedging card that’s good for two months or until
August. Basically, the buyer is hoping gas prices will
go higher than the guaranteed P53.50 per liter that
Seaoil is willing to sell cardholders. If the price of
gasoline improves or is cheaper than P53.50, however,
the cardholder can pay in cash.
With the
price of gasoline expected to further up, there’s only
one drawback to this fuel-hedging scheme. Seaoil has
only 15 stations in Metro Manila.
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DID you
know 1:
There’s
a Botika ng Bayan branch at the Government Service
Insurance System (GSIS) head office.
No, you
don’t have to be a GSIS member to buy the same but
more-affordable medicine as in your favorite drugstore
chain.
DID you
know 2:
The family of former Tourism Secretary Antonio Gonzalez
has obviously not yet given up on the Mimosa Leisure
Estate that it used to manage.
You see,
Mondragon International Philippines Inc. is contesting
the bidding out of the leisure estate by Clark
Development Corp. (for the hotel and villas) and
Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (for the casino).
****
FOR the
longest time, Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte has
been pushing for cutting up the second district, which
is bigger than Makati, into smaller (read: represented
by one congressman) districts. As everybody knows, the
city accounts for one-fifth of Metro Manila’s land and
population.
Under
Sonny Belmonte,
Quezon City’s annual income has also significantly increased to P7
billion (and mind you, with no long-term debts), largely
due to the city hosting more humongous malls (read: SM
North, TriNoma and
Araneta
Commercial Center, to name the more prominent ones) than
any other city in Metro Manila.
Oh yes,
aside from being the “city with the most malls,” QC is
trying to be the city with lots of
information-technology (IT) parks. There’s Eastwood, of
course, and the Ayala-UP science park, which hosts the
regional IT operations of HSBC Corp. and the global IT
operations of Manulife.
****
Bank
notes 1:
On one
hand, interest on savings deposit is now 0.75 percent.
Including taxes, that’s an effective rate of about 0.5
percent per year and a clear disincentive to save,
considering the ever increasing inflation rate.
On the
other hand, credit cards now charge a monthly interest
of 3.5 percent. The rate for short-term personal loans
is lower at 2.5 a month.
Bank
notes 2:
If you’re a mom-and-pop operation, the Bank of the
Philippine Islands (BPI) will not accept more than
four-check deposits per branch per day. This means that
payroll checks for businesses with more than four
employees will have to be coursed through more than one
BPI branch. |
