New Era

I am not talking about the university associated with a religious group, which most of the country’s national politicians seek endorsement from during the election session because it’s known for delivering the so-called herd-votes.

And, I hope they’re not too zealous as I may be or could be a respondent to an IPR (intellectual property right) violation, having to use New Era as the title of this piece.

Seriously now, I’m referring to the emergence or the dawning of the new era, a fresh batch of associates, alliances, connections in the business industry. Stalwarts in the business arena – Jaime Zobel de Ayala (JAZA), Enrique Razon of ICTSI, San Miguel’s Ramon S. Ang, PLDT’s Manuel V. Pangilinan and Sabin Aboitiz – were among the members of the delegation of the much talked about New York getaway of President Junior.

As part of the business delegation, it was very apparent, based on recent developments, that Sabin, yes, oh Sabin, is definitely close to the primary Palace resident.

JAZA was the supporting character of the economic managers during the economic briefing held September 22 to attract foreign investors to the country.

In that important event, however, Sabin was seemingly absent. He must have done something good, allowing him to skip. And surely, he did. Two days prior to the economic briefing, Junior went to meet John Tuttle, vice chair and chief commercial officer of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Tagging along were House Speaker, presidential cousin Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the omni-present (the observation is: he’s forever present wherever foreign trips his father goes) Ilocos Norte 1st district Representative Sandro Marcos, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual and Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno and of course, 1ST Lady LAM (Liz a Araneta Marcos)

There it goes again. Just a slight diversion on the finance secretary – watching the economic briefing that we streamed live, the ticker on screen says: ``Secretary Jockno,” exactly the same spelling in the ticker during the post State of the Nation Address economic briefing.

Again, I have a screen shot as evidence. What’s happening?

Back to Sabin. So, the question is, why was Sabin the only captain of the business industry there at the NYSE? The justification used was that he’s the convenor of the Private Sector Advisory Council.

But, there’s more to it than that. This corner gathered that it was the “group of Sabin” that worked out for Junior to ring the closing bell of the NYSE. Way to go.

And, good job!

Now, I wonder the rationale behind this statement: “Mr. Aboitiz is not connected with any government agency or instrumentality” placed as the last paragraph of the president and CEO in the Aboitiz website.