Did you know 1: The black-market price for the dollar is now a peso higher than whatever banks are officially quoting. You see, there’s a great demand for dollars to pay for imported petroleum products and rice.

Interestingly, bank branches are under pressure from favored clients to provide them with much-needed dollars to pay for imports that must soon be ordered for the Christmas season. As a result, branch managers have been selling dollars directly to favored clients at parallel rates. No, they don’t pocket the money; they report it somewhere as part of branch revenues.

Did you know 2: There’s talk US rice currently retailing at P25 a kilo will go up by P10 next month.

You see, whatever cheap rice stock government has right now has been diverted to Panay, which has been devastated by typhoon Frank (read: people truly have nothing to eat there and whatever palay has been saved is being dried but nobody knows for sure how the palay soaked in dirty water is going to taste like once it’s milled).

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The Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) has purchased a 6,000-square meter property in the Manila Bay reclamation area. The property, which was offered when former BID commissioner Andrea Domingo headed the Philippine Reclamation Authority, exchanged hands only this year when BID was able to surpass its target revenue by P300-million in 2007.

As everybody knows, whatever money BID makes is remitted to the National Treasury. However, a deal was worked out where whatever revenue is earned in excess of the targeted P1.4 billion last year could be used by the BID for its own purposes. BID used P180 million to pay for the property and the balance P120 million for its computerization program.

This year, BID projects to earn another P300-million surplus (read: projected 2008 revenues of P2 billion), part of which will be used to build an eight-story head office. When that’s completed, the current seedy-looking BID office in Manila will be converted into the NCR office.

Now, about BID’s computerization program. Right now, BID commissioner Marcelino Libanan is  “talking” to the various special economic zones such Subic, which are not required to, uhm, reconcile their lists of working foreigners and their dependents with BID, so long as these foreigners do not leave the SEZs.

As a result, the estimated 40,000 Korean managers working at the Hanjin Shipyard in Subic are not necessarily covered by BID’s list of 17,000 foreigners currently holding work visas.

Subscriber take-up healthy—Globe

TELECOMMUNICATIONS company, Globe Telecom, said subscriber take-up in the second quarter was generally “healthy” despite an observed slowdown in consumption spending brought by the effect of inflation resulting from higher-petroleum prices.

Smart offers phone service for seafarers

A NETWORK facility that will allow seafarers to use their GSM (global system for mobile communications) handsets even while in the middle of the ocean is expected to be available by end-2008.

Metro Pacific, Basic Energy set sights on ethanol venture

METRO Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Basic Energy Corp. (BEC) for a potential partnership engaged in ethanol production.

FPHC portions out preferred share sale proceeds

ABOUT $12.9 million (roughly P561.5 million) have already been disbursed by First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC) from the P4.3 billion in proceeds generated from the sale of preferred shares in April.

Robinsons Land to develop 7 BPO sites

Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) will develop seven BPO and call-center sites this year, expanding the company’s office space inventory and regional presence.

Not Business as Usual: A peso premium in the black market

Did you know 1: The black-market price for the dollar is now a peso higher than whatever banks are officially quoting. You see, there’s a great demand for dollars to pay for imported petroleum products and rice.