'Practice what you preach'

A provincial priest, a consistently rabid critic of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo especially when she was still in power, is practicing what he preaches – using the Gospel of John as part of his homily last Sunday in discussing recent political developments. The priest specifically discussed Chapter 8 – and those who know their Bible will recall the verses about a woman named Mary Magdalene who was caught committing adultery (a lot of people have wondered how this came about, surmising that someone must have been stalking her), and literally dragged by the scribes and Pharisees before Jesus, demanding that this sinner be stoned to death.

During his sermon, the priest commented that then as now, there are many Filipino hypocrites, more specifically politicians, who are the ones that shout the loudest in condemnation when in reality, they themselves are more guilty of the same sin – like some of the Pharisees who were said to be “customers” actually of Mary Magdalene, a known prostitute. And in an apparent swipe against some people in power who seem to be trying to outdo each other in crucifying the ailing ex-president, he asked his congregation: “Who has not lied, has not stolen, has not cheated even once in his life? If you can truthfully answer with a ‘no,’ then by all means you can cast the first stone,” he said, stressing that Filipinos should follow the example of Jesus and allow due process and justice to take its natural course, and not resort to quick condemnation and mob rule.   

Business as usual

Despite the political drama that has placed the Philippines under international scrutiny once again, it’s still business as usual especially with assurances from the military leadership that they are solid behind the chain of command – meaning they support Commander-in-chief P-Noy. As a matter of fact, leading international banking software systems provider Temenos made its presence felt recently, looking at the Philippines as a market that is changing in regulatory requirements yet gaining pace with innovation, not to mention evolving customer expectations.

Temenos partnered with Thakral One – an outfit that offers end-to-end IT solutions including business intelligence and analytics – in entering the Philippine market and bringing deep industry knowledge as well as their expertise in terms of banking software systems to retail, corporate, universal and private banks, among others. Temenos provides products and solutions to clients located in 125 countries, among them Credit Suisse, Metro Bank UK and the Bank of Shanghai. Studies show Temenos customers being more profitable and enjoying as much as 62 percent higher return on their capital. That’s certainly an interesting fact.

Hawaiian high

Having recently celebrated its 82nd year in service, Hawaiian Airlines is on a high, announcing the addition of five more Airbus A330s that will take delivery over the next four years with purchase rights for an additional three more. The move signals the long-range fleet renewal and expansion plans for the airline, with the new aircraft set to replace the current Boeing 767-300s that will soon be retired. The airline has been consistently ranked Number 1 for on time performance, registering a 95.5 percent on-time arrival record for September with only three cancellations out of a total of 5,368 flights – or less than 0.1 percent.

Not surprisingly, consumer demand has been increasing which the growing fleet is expected to meet not only for its services to Honolulu from LA, Los Angeles, San Francisco but its expanding international routes, in particular Tokyo, Seoul, and Osaka. Incidentally, HA plans to launch its first US East Coast service with direct daily flights from the carrier’s Honolulu base to New York’s JFK Airport starting in June next year using a 294-seat Airbus A330-200. According to Innovata schedules, no other carrier operates nonstop service between Honolulu and New York JFK.

Not bad for an airline that started out by delivering newspapers with a Sikorsy S-38 amphibian biplane.

Spy tidbit

One of the four gaming companies granted a license to operate a casino within the Entertainment City by Pagcor is Azure Corp. of Japan, one of the largest gaming machine manufacturers in the world famous for creating the Pachinko machine.  Azure has also been a shareholder of the Wynn Resorts Ltd. since March 2005, through which the gaming machine firm is developing one of the world’s largest casino resorts. 

Talk is rife among the casino crowd that Azure will fold in its casino hotel complex into listed Mabuhay Holdings Corp. MHC is affiliated with the Allied Kajima Co., which happens to be one of the largest construction companies in Japan.

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