Summertime for the Zobels
With gridlocked Metro Manila being swamped by torrential rains, the scions of the Spanish-Filipino royalty have decamped to the old continent, there to enjoy the northern summer instead.
And rather than moan and whine and fill Facebook with toxic political comments, the mestizos of Makati have shed off the privacy inhibition of their parents and grandparents, opting to share their fabulous lifestyles on social media for their friends and their aspirational followers.
For instance, the Palawan based daughter of Bea Zobel Jr., Monica, was recently somewhere in the Mediterranean, sunning her back on a yacht along with three other gorgeous young ladies in various stages of undress.
“I hope you’re wearing sunblock,” c. mark wilson commented, with jaza, apparently the Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chiming in, “the Doctor speaks.”
Meanwhile, Monica’s sister, Paloma, was in Paris over the weekend, bicycling around in a duster and visiting what looked a like a farmers’ or an antique market.
The daughter of ICTSI boss Ricky Razon, Katrina, on the other hand was practicing her water-skiing skills off Mykonos, Greece, gleefully declaring on her Instagram account, “You can’t touch me.”
Their tito, Inigo Zobel, who with sister Mercedes own half of the fabulous McMicking inheritance in Ayala Corp., was in the Zobel-developed Sotogrande in southern Spain, there to enjoy the annual polo tournament in what has become the Katrina Razon: In fine form playing ground of the European rich.
Another uncle, Andres Soriano III, will be somewhere in Portugal by this time, preparing for next week’s Rolex TP52 regatta, the third in a series of the superyacht races across the Mediterranean.
A former chairman and chief executive of the San Miguel conglomerate, the New York-based Soriano commissioned his fourth yacht for this annual race from Longitud Cero, the Spanish champion boat builder.
The fourth Alegre yacht easily costs more than either the West Village coop apartment Andy Soriano gifted his daughter Cristina or the condo unit in Gramercy Park for his son Andres IV.
Meanwhile, the current chairman of San Miguel, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., was somewhere nearer, enjoying a La Salle basketball tournament in Kaohsiung, Taiwan last week, as dutifully recorded by his constant companion, beauty queen Aileen Damiles.
Back to the Zobels, not everyone was thinking of the next summer outing, though.
Bea Zobel Jr.’s son, Jaime Urquijo, has just graduated from INSEAD France for his MBA degree.
Already, the obviously proud mother was letting her billionaire clan know with her public thought balloon about the future, as “they need to be my bread winners soon!”
Money talks
• BDO president Nestor Tan is opposed to the application of the Qatari National Bank to trademark the “QNB” remittance business in the Philippines, as this column reported last week, because QNB sounds like ONB of the One Network Bank, the Mindanao-based rural bank subsidiary of BDO.
• The Heritage Hotel, since it lost its anchor tenant Casino Filipino, now needs to cough up P508 million to the tax brigade after its parent, the listed Grand Plaza Hotel Corp., committed an elementary mistake -- failing to timely file a protest with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
“The fact that the assessment has become final for failure of the taxpayer to file a protest within the reglementary period means that the validity or correctness of the assessment may no longer be questioned on appeal,” the Court of Tax Appeals ruled last week.
Heard through the grapevine
It is not only taipan Lucio Tan’s Asia Brewery that San Miguel Corp. is now involved in a trademark battle with.
San Miguel Brewery is also asking the Intellectual Property Office to stop Andrew Tan’s Emperador Distillers from registering a “Red Hot” alcoholic drink, apparently on the ground that the name may confuse consumers and buying public with San Miguel’s own Red Horse Beer.
E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com