Literally wired

Social Security System president and chief executive officer Corazon de la Paz called last Tuesday to make the following clarifications:

• Executive vice-president Horace Templo will be meted a six-month suspension, effective April 5 (and not March 30). The suspension is in compliance with an order from the Ombudsman which the SSS only received last March 19 and which SSS has to implement within 15 days or by April 3, the day before Palm Sunday.

• There is no bad blood between Cora de la Paz and Mr. Templo, who carries the institutional knowledge of the SSS as a career officer and as its second highest ranking officer. (My apologies to Ms. De la Paz for stating that her suspension of Mr. Templo was both personal and professional in nature).

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Did you know 1: The basketball varsity team of De La Salle University has begged off from participating in the ongoing Unity Cup of the Philippine Basketball League.

Unlike the teams of Ateneo de Manila University, Far Eastern University, Mapua Institute, and University of Sto. Tomas who are honing their skills in the PBL this summer, the La Salle team will be training abroad and will be back, of course, in time for the University Athletic Association of the Philippines games this July.

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Did you know 2: The Assumption sisters have been sounding off their alumni on a serious proposal to concentrate on elementary and secondary education and to phase out the college. You know, something along the lines of Poveda Learning Cen-ter or Immaculate Conception Academy.

The reasoning here is that the San Lorenzo campus is not getting the same quality of college students as it is getting in its grade school and high school (most of whom, of course, want to take their college in a coed university).

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Asiatrust Development Bank president Dionisio Ong looked weird carrying a shoulder bag with him everywhere he went last Tuesday.

You see, Diony Ong’s doctor wanted to monitor his heart for 24 hours as part of a regular executive check-up. Since Mr. Ong wasn’t inclined to stay in the hospital, his doctor insisted that his upper torso be literally wired and that he carry a heart mo-nitor hidden in a shoulder bag.

Result? Mr. Ong’s heart is healthy to take the stress of one-year-old twins.

By the way, Asiatrust came second to a Taiwanese bank for SME innovation among member-bankers of the Asia-Pacific Bankers Congress which held its awards night last Friday.

The development bank was cited by the Asian Banking Awards for its "SME Helpline," a planning kit which increases the chances of first-time borrowers to get their loans approved. The kit, which is given free of charge in all the bank’s 28 branches, shows how to prepare such documents as sales and operation plans and a simple income statements as well as how to compute for profitability ratios.