Philippines Inc. Membership Meeting

August 22, 2017 Tuesday, Manila Golf

It’s been a while since Philippines, Inc. held its last General Membership Meeting.

Our meeting last Tuesday in Manila Golf and Country Club was timely because there were vacant posts needed to be filled in.

Our meeting was set at 12 noon, I arrived at 11.57 am.

No golfers?

(Antonio Lopa, OMB, Atty. Job Ambrosio, RP Manhit)
Tony and I have known each other since FVR’s presidency. We traveled a lot with FVR, several times with Erap, a few times with GMA and Pnoy. Ang tagal na non.

New board members are:
Sergio Ortiz-Luis. Jr, voted as the replacement of Atty. Mike Varela who passed away last year.
Ambassador Joey Antonio is the only one left as board adviser because Ambassador Felimon Cuevas passed away and Oscar de Venecia resigned due to health reasons. Joey was voted as ex-officio board member.
Felix Ang is now a member of the board, to replace Oscar de Venecia.
Those remaining in their current position are:
Antonio Lopa as Chairman of the Board, Ambassador Babe Romualdez as Vice Chairman, Antonio Cojuangco as President, Atty. Opap Villongco as Corporate Secretary and yours truly as Treasurer. Opap replaced his father in law Atty.Leonardo Siguion-Reyna, Sr. as Corporate Secretary. Sig passed away a few years ago.

Present in the meeting were:
1. Antonio O. Cojuangco
2. Antonio Lopa
3. Babe Romualdez
4. Susing Pineda
5. Rey Oben
6. Fausto Preysler
7. Justo Ortiz
8. Gigi Montinola
9. William Go
10. Harry Liu
11. Jefrrey Ng
12. Dindo Manhit
13. RP Manhit
14. Jun Periquet
15. Noel Onate

Union Bank’s big boss Tito Ortiz (standing)

It was also an advanced celebration for the expected confirmation of Babe Romualdez as Philippine Ambassador to the US by the Commission on Appointments.
Babe said that the objective is enhancing Philippines – US relationship and to pursue active trade development to strengthen the economic bond between the Philippines, the US and the South Pacific countries.

I was surprised to see Atty. Opap Villongco drinking buko juice when I arrived. Usually he drinks wine or something stronger.
(Left to right: Atty. Opap, William Go, Atty. Leo Macatangay (from Siguion Reyna Law Office)

Our dessert was guinumis. I had two glasses kaya my sugar level probably hit the bell.

Men eating dessert so seriously.

I like how we conduct our meetings. Simple lang. No long speeches and presentations. We are all busy and we don’t waste each other’s time by having long presentations. It’s not time consuming. We also have time to joke around and listen to tsismis.

I bought this Lily Pulitzer dress a few days ago in Rustan’s. I was disappointed with how my dress behaved. It was supposed to be off shoulder pero one side keeps going up and the other one drops.

Hindi pala sya maganda. Ang mahal pa mandin. Para akong hinalay.

Top row left to right: Atty. Job Ambrosio (Director NiHAO Mineral Resources International), Rey Oben (Chairman Oben Group of Companies- Toyota Otis, Toyota Balintawak, Toyota Marilao), Harry Liu (Chairman the Rockwell Club), Rupert Paul Manhit (Stratbase), Justo Ortiz (Chairman Union Bank), Gigi Montinola (Chairman of Far Eastern University and Chairman of World Wide Fund), Jeffrey Ng (Anvil Business Club).
Seated left to right: Jun Periquet (president of Metropolitan Insurance), Noel Onate (chairman and president, APEC Plans), Fausto Preysler (chairman and president of Smith Bell Corp.), Susing Pineda (president of UTHI), Annie C. Tan-Yee, Antonio O. Cojuangco, Babe Romualdez (Philippine Ambassador to the US and its territories), William Go