Newsprint heiress gets a VIP push from Arroyo

Low-key newsprint and paper manufacturing heiress Mayleen Ting is getting a push in her quest for Filipino citizenship from no less than former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

GMA, along with fellow Pampanga Rep. Carmelo Lazatin II, has filed a bill seeking to grant citizenship to the 40-year-old Ting who was born in the United States, but grew up and finished grade school and high school in the Philippines, at the International School of Manila to be exact.

Her father, Elon Ting, originally from Taiwan, established in 1987 the Trust International Paper Co. in Mabalacat, Pampanga, the only local paper manufacturer that exports newsprint and printing and writing paper, using recycled paper.

After finishing mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and getting an MBA degree from Stanford, the younger Ting returned to the Philippines in 2008, helping establish and manage an 82-megawatt coal power plant within the 37-hectare TIPCO complex.

The TIPCO power plant, in turn, is selling its excess capacity to the power-starved areas of Pampanga. Incidentally, the elder Ting used to have the Inquirer owners as partners in TIPCO, until the Asian currency crisis triggered a court case and stoked a feud with the Mile Long senoras that apparently lasts up to this day.

But that, as they say, is another story.

Roxas Triangle finds a scapegoat

The electrical contractor for the swimming pool of One Roxas Triangle, where three condo residents suffered a mild shock while taking a dip during the Yule holidays, thinks that his company is being made a convenient scapegoat for the incident.

“Up until that day, our company had not yet turned over the project to the owner,” RSP Lim said in a statement, in reaction to a Feb. 5 item here. “In truth and fact, the status of the One Roxas Triangle pool project remain(ed) unfinished, and (was) thus unfit for use.” This is RSP Lim’s version: A few days before the incident, RSP Lim electricians ran a simultaneous and comprehensive test called the Megger Test with the project manager, Design Coordinates Inc.

The test revealed that one of the two circuits traversing the swimming pool had a minor defect. DCI’s electrical engineer then gave detailed instructions to the RSP Lim personnel on how they wanted to revise the wiring connection, which was followed to the letter.

“The normal course would be to subject this rewiring to another round of tests, but the pool was inexplicably opened for use,” RSP Lim said.

After the near electrocution of the three swimmers, an electrical consultant hired by developer Ayala Land now wants to the relocate the power transformers.

“Ultimately, in our opinion, this appears to be a design flaw – the power transformers are too exposed, and placed too close to the swimming pool. So why blame the contractor who simply implements the design?” RSP Lim asked. “In a project’s hierarchy, the contractor is inevitably at the lowest rung of the ladder.”

Money talks

• Those who may want to join the Makati Sports Club may have an opportunity to pick up membership shares at a discount.

The club is auctioning next week a baker’s dozen of delinquent shares, including those of Anscor Insurance Brokers and late stockbroker Irving Ackerman’s.

• AirSWIFT will start flying three times a week between Puerto Princesa and El Nido next month to catch the Palawan travelers who could not otherwise be accommodated by the Manila flights of the Ayala airline.

Heard through the grapevine

Nearly one-third of the record 1.5-billion MRC shares turnover last Friday, when the MRC share surge almost hit the 50 percent ceiling, was transacted through COL Financial, with the online broker accounting for 31 percent of the buyers and nearly 21 percent of the sellers.

E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com