WORRIED about the growing defiance and the increasing media noise being generated by the 15 SGV partners opposed to integration, Ernst & Young has dispatched to Makati its tax managing partner for the Far East region, the Hong Kong-based John Nicolai, to end the revolt within the country?s largest audit firm.

According to the grapevine, Ernst & Young has been itching to go public to answer the legal issues being raised against the multinational agency and also to expose the forces and motives allegedly behind the SGV 15, but is being held back because of health concerns for the octogenarian founder of SGV, Washington Sycip.

Apparently, Ernst & Young suspects that ousted SGV managing partner Dave Balangue has all along been in bed with the dissident group within SGV, and not just someone who had been caught in between the pro- and anti-integration forces.

The Ernst & Young theory is that the SGV 15 is all but ready to jump ship to the competing KPMG, long been rumored, but hotly denied, on having former SGV chairman Cesar Purisima as one of the audit firm?s silent principals.

To prevent the dissidents from joining the competition, SGV and Ernst & Young want the SGV 15 to first sign a non-compete clause, in addition to one year?s worth of going-away salary, before releasing them.

Apparently, the non-compete clause, plus the modest financial parachute, is what has so far been preventing SGV 15 counsel Manuel ?Lolong? Lazaro from advising his clients to agree.

Balangue, incidentally, was seen at the Manila Golf Club yesterday, trying very hard to maintain a business-as-usual attitude despite the jokes, as he queued with scores of players itching to try the world?s best renovated course for 2009, according to the Golf Inc. magazine, as the Golden Tee finally got under way after the tournament?s three-year absence.

But, that, as they say, is another story.

Money-go-round

? Architect Jose Pedro ?Bong? Recio, who late last year broke away from his long-term partner Carmelo Casas, has formed his own firm, Rchitects Inc. His first project?the GT-Toyota Asian Center at the University of the Philippines, a planned auditorium and museum library financed by taipan George Ty and Toyota Motors Philippines.

? Former Ford Philippines manager Socorro Ventosa won an Audi 4 after scoring a hole-in-one in last weekend?s annual ICTSI golf tournament at The Country Club. Ventosa was immediately given an offer she could not refuse by a German car-loving golfer, also known as the golfing idol of Carlos Soriano.

Heard through the grapevine

Stockbroker Vivian Yuchengco called up to say that she was actually helping William Gatchalian improve the corporate governance of his listed companies, contrary to the claim in Wednesday?s column that the hotel tycoon had been caught in a long-running feud between Yuchengco and stockbroker Robert Coyiuto Jr.

What apparently happened was that the questioned Gatchalian transactions, lately coursed through the Coyiuto and PCCI Securities brokerages, had been red-flagged not by Yuchengco but by the bourse?s computerized tracking program.

(Web site: www.cocktales.ph; e-mail: cocktales_mst@pldtdsl.net)