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There’s
talk the Dominicans are talking with University of Santo
Tomas (UST) alumnus Ricardo Murillo to take over the
day-to-day operation of UST Hospital.
Murillo
and brother, Hilario Jr., are in the import-export
business. Until July of this year, however, they also
used to manage Cardinal Santos Hospital through Hospital
Managers Inc. (HMI has been replaced by the group of
Manuel Pan-gilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments, which
has so far handed over only P800 million of the
P1.4-billion initial payment owed to HMI representing
advances to the Catholic Church, which owns the
hospital).
As
everybody knows, UST Hospital was ordered dissolved by
the Rome-based Dominican Order and was supposed to be
incorporated back into the UST as an educational
adjunct. To date, however, the hospital remains a
separate entity because it has not been able to submit
the financial documents needed by the Securities and
Exchange Commission chaired by Fe Barin to ensure that
creditors are paid.
The
initial plan of the hospital—which was incorporated by
some Dominicans in their personal capacities and by some
private individuals—was to get the university to cough
up the necessary funds to pay the creditors. However,
this move has been opposed by some university
departments, claiming that this is a problem of the
medical school.
An even
more interesting development is the move of some UST
alumni to file estafa cases against the original
incorporators of the hospital.
****
OFW
notes 1:
Of the 50 hairdressers who applied, a Canadian company
found only two who met its requirement of a single
Filipina with three years’ working experience and a
high-school diploma.
It turns
out that most applicants are married, who will, of
course, be able to bring their families to Canada three
years after they are issued licenses to work.
As it
is, the two applicants who made it will have to undergo
a three-month crash course (read: not on cutting, silly,
but on professional ethics, the chemistry of hair and
the like) with an accredited Filipino school.
Oh yes,
the starting pay is $10 an hour plus whatever tips they
get from happy clients). The work contract is for five
years.
****
OFW
notes 2:
Representatives of a Korean construction company with
huge projects in Dubai are still in town, looking for
architectural engineers (read: the usual civil,
electrical and mechanical engineers as well as the more
esoteric specializations such as fire-fighting
engineering).
The pay
scale ranges from $3,000 to $5,000 a month.
****
There’s
a draft proposal before Congress that would set aside 20
percent of the net income derived from the development
of 10,000 hectares that constitute the ancestral domain
of the Aetas in Central Luzon to improve the standard of
living of this ethnic minority.
Interestingly, the ones opposing the proposal are
Congressmen Carmelo Lazatin (whose family has large
property holdings in the region) and Jeci Aquino Lapus
(the brother of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus), whose
districts form part of the Aetas’ domain.
Truth to
tell, there aren’t that many investors right now even
though the lease rate at P50,000 a month is quite
generous. |
