Could it be true? DZMM said this morning the number of cars that ply the EDSA route is down by 10 percent. Could it be that the age of carpooling and mass rail transit has finally arrived? With a P60 per liter price looming over everyone’s heads, Filipinos will be spending so much more on transportation, food and other necessities, leaving less money for everything else including big and new cars.

I dare predict that there will come a time when only men will be driving alone on EDSA during rush hour! (You know how men hate car pools. At least the men I know who hate what they call “small talk”). It’s nice too if Filipinos are cutting down on gimmick days, but hopefully not totally. I’m not too sure about the happiness index of hermits.

A Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial the other day pointed out that the rising oil and food prices have one unintended but good consequence: people are living simpler lives.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

You all love Warren Buffett, right? Would you pay $2.1 million to have lunch with the oracle of Omaha like this Chinese investment manager who decided to pick up the tab by taking part in a high-stakes online charity auction?

Zhao Danyang, 36, will have lunch with the US billionaire at a Smith and Wollensky steakhouse restaurant in New York. He can bring seven friends to enjoy Buffett’s company for, oh, maybe two hours. Three hours max… maybe.
[Read the rest of this entry »]

When “El Kapitan” was buying the government’s stake in Philippine National Bank more than 10 years ago, my teammates and I (in another publication) wrote a special report on him. While doing my research, I must have read truckloads of literature about the man -– from urban legends to PR-ish articles. Sadly, most of those publications are not available by Googling.

He has been painted as the best rags to riches story this side of the planet, to the most “well-connected” tycoon and everything in between. Lucio Tan is an enigmatic figure. The fact that he is one of Asia’s richest billionaire is not as interesting as how he got his billions.

I would have loved to a one-on-one interview 10 years ago, if only to ask him how he could remain unscathed after every Philippine president he has been closely linked to went down in political flames. But of course, we all know the answer to that.
[Read the rest of this entry »]