Hardly had the Asian Institute of Management quelled its labor row with the AIM Faculty Association when the academic equivalent of a catfight broke out between two female colleagues, putting AIM president Francis Estrada and Dean Victoria Licuanan on the spot.

According to the grapevine, Estrada and Licuanan approved the one-week suspension of Grace Ugut, the associate dean for executive programs, upon the libel/slander complaint of Marirose Sison-Garcia, former managing director for marketing.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fallout between the two female colleagues; Sison-Garcia claims that Ugut, an Indonesian national married to an official of the Asian Development Bank, had publicly sniped at her on five occasions.

In any case, Sison-Garcia is still not satisfied with the sanction since Estrada and Licuanan suspended Ugut from Dec. 22 to Dec. 28, during the Christmas holidays, when even the AIM janitors were also on forced leave.

Malaca?ang fumbler

Instead of honoring the professional fees of a fellow lawyer, Deputy Executive Secretary Waldo Flores now has the entire BSA Tower Homeowners? Association, where Flores is president, to pay for his legal blunder.

Lawyer Alberto Bonbon Reyes has just won a P1.92-million-plus-interest judgment from Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Perpetua Atal-Pano, representing his unpaid legal fees from the homeowners? association.

Reyes had successfully settled and whittled down the accumulated real estate taxes of BSA Tower with City Hall, but Flores balked at honoring the lawyer?s fee, apparently because it was negotiated by the previous homeowners? president, Dionisio Capistrano, whom Flores is now feuding with.

The P1.92-million award does not yet include the damages and cost of suit that will still be litigated by the Flores board and Reyes before Judge Atal-Pano.

SIA cuts, PAL expands

Singapore Airlines announced over the weekend that it will be dropping altogether its thrice a week service to Vancouver after April 25 because of the depressed market.

Philippine Airlines, on the other hand, is upgrading its current five times a week flights from Manila to the western Canadian port of entry to a daily service starting March 23.

PAL flies non-stop from Manila to Vancouver, and vice versa.

Pinoy soul food in New York

The opening of the first Jollibee outlet in New York and in the East Coast last weekend merited a favorable coverage from the Gray Lady herself, New York Times, on its City section.

?It?s the rare neighborhood of mom-and-pop shops that actually welcomes a fastfood joint.

?But for months, the Filipino-American community centered in Woodside, Queens New York, has been eagerly awaiting the opening of a Filipino food-chain restaurant called Jollibee, and describing its dishes in breathless, almost reverent tones,? began the New York Times Feb. 13 report by Mark Foggin.

The news report, which described Jollibee?s offerings as ?Filipino soul food,? was even accompanied by a photo of the Woodside branch.

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