Even the rich are now feeling the pinch of the global financial meltdown.

Go to Ayala?s Serendra at the Fort and at Ayala?s pricey Greenbelt eateries and notice there are now less and less people eating. But, take a look at the popular food chains,and notice the difference. Jollibee, Chowking, McDonald?s, KFC and others are still crowded.

Even the car distributors are complaining because sales have gone down, but car exchanges and dealers of used cars are now laughing. Luxury hotels, providing accommodations for weddings, anniversary and birthday bashes for the profligate rich have noticed drops in banquet sales.

All these can only mean that a financial and economic crisis can be a great leveler. Santa Banana, at least, we, who cannot afford those expensive restaurants at Ayala?s Greenbelt and Serendra now have one thing in common with the rich and affluent.

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The simmering dispute of the so-called ?constitutionalists? and the ?dummies? within the decades-old and biggest accountancy firm SGV (Sycip, Gorres and Velayo) (its clients number over 600 of the first 1,000 biggest corporations) finally erupted last week with the 14 senior partners, headed by vice chairman Roman Felipe, quitting SGV by refusing to sign the integral agreement with Ernst & Young, a worldwide American accounting firm. And they all quit.

The 14 partners have been dubbed as ?constitutionalists.? They believe that SGV, when subsumed by Ernst & Young, would in effect violate the Constitution and that most of the remaining partners who went along with the internal agreement foisted by E&Y would also in effect make them ?dummies? in violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.

The Constitution reserves the legal and accountancy professions only for Filipinos.

With this legal and constitutional controversy coming to a head, the Securities and Exchange Commission has since started investigations. Especially so since one of the SGV partners, Washington Sycip, an American citizen, is known to head a big corporation and serves as a client at the same time of SGV. In fact, a big number of CPAs have made it known their desire for Congress to step in. An honest-to-goodness investigation is imperative ?in aid of legislation.?

In fact, there are reports going around that some of the big clients of SGV have made their intention to pull out from the company?s auditing umbrella.

It is said that while the SEC may consider the SGV imbroglio an internal corporate affair, the fact that E&Y (an international auditing firm) has virtually taken over the biggest accountancy firm in the country puts Philippine business at risk. It poses a threat to public interest as well.

My gulay, go to SGV headquarters along Ayala Avenue, and see for yourself that the signage of E&Y is much larger than SGV?s. Santa Banana, if that doesn?t confirm suspicions that SGV is now an extension of the American accountancy outfit, I don?t know what is.

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I got a reaction last week to my earlier column from Stradcom, an information technology outfit that has a contract with Land Transportation Office. The letter basically confirmed my expos? of a ?stick ?em up? sticker ripoff of over six million vehicle owners.

This ripoff or scam has been approved by the LTO. The sticker deal, costing P300 apiece as proposed by Stradcom, is now awaiting approval by Transportation Secretary Larry Mendoza. If approved, Stradcom, which is now being investigated by Congress for failure to abide by its contract with LTO, will be laughing all the way to the banks because it has a P2-billion windfall at the expense of an unwary public.

What makes this Stradcom sticker deal truly rotten and stinking is that the sticker is merely a repeat of the contents of registration paper of vehicles. But Stradcom tries to justify this ripoff at an implementation of its so-called ?Radio Frequency Identification,? which Stradcom claims will enhance vehicle registration.

The so-called RFID is supposedly an innovative idea to enhance vehicle registration by allowing the electronic verification of the identity,statues and authenticity of vehicle data. Santa Banana,isn?t this alleged innovative idea already within the framework of the LTO technology of Stradcom to avoid illegal and double registration smuggling and carnapping?

I repeat what I have been asking. What love potion has Stradcom been making LTO drink that it has been getting all the benefits without complying with all the provisions of its multi-billion peso contract entered into during the Ramos administration? With this new ripoff, my gulay, Stradcom is adding insult to injury!

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It is absolutely not a dark, secluded place. And unless you are a regular guest, it could really be a place where no one knows your face.

But, unlike in that song ?Hernando?s Hideaway? that became highly popular in the 1950s, and can trigger a cascade of bittersweet memories for oldies like me, no way can you order even just a glass of water, or hanker for a fast embrace.

Not in any of the Gwapotels that MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando had put up in Port Area and in Tondo to provide lodging for people in need of a temporary place to stay whether for a couple of days or just for the night. It?s been featured in this newspaper a couple of times, the latest of which was only last Feb. 16.

My gulay,the Gwapotel concept is such a practical and refreshing approach to the problem of accommodation for transients that it?s a wonder why nobody had thought of it before.

It fills a crying need for people with emasculated wallets who cannot afford those P300 or so cost of an overnight stay in those motels in Sta. Cruz district and Ermita-Malate areas. Or, even the cheaper room rates of those squalid, hole-in-the-wall establishments in Quiapo Sta. Cruz that pass for hotels but which, more often than not actually become places of assignation.

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It took Fernando, harnessing the resources of Metro Manila Development Authority, to come up with the idea that has since brought incalculable benefit to people in able to get home and are compelled to look for a place to sleep in. They include people whose working time ends at odd hours at night such as call center employees, nurses, vendors the so-called GROs, or guest relations officers in nightclubs and beer houses, workers in 24-hours restaurants and fast-food outlets, and arriving and departing seamen and migrant workers. It goes without saying of course that the sleeping quarters of men are apart from that of women.

Fernando?s Gwapotels also offer relatively comfortable quarters for provincial folks who need to come to Manila for one reason or another but have no relatives or friends in the city who can give them sleeping quarters.

Costing only P25 for an eight-hour stay and located in easily accessible places, Fernando?s Gwapotels serve as haven where cash-strapped job-seekers, for instance, can rest their tired bodies grown weary from pounding the streets. An additional P25 will extend the eight hours to a full day. There?s a communal bath with 20 coin-operated showers, though only flimsy curtains separate each shower.

You only need to insert a P5 coin in the appropriate slot to get an eight-minute bath. And anybody who wants a longer shower can simply plunk in anotherP5 coin to get an extension of another eight minutes.

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Guest are afforded no privacy, however, in open sleeping quarters, with double-decked beds lined up in army-barracks style. There are no lockers too, so guests have to be on constant guard of belongings.

Of course, one cannot expect air-conditioning at such a very low rate. But, the sleeping areas have sufficient ventilation. The place is not stuffy at all and is kept clean at all times.

Fernando is reportedly on the lookout for building that the MMDA can lease and transform into such lodging. Perhaps, MMDA can also create similar establishments exclusively for students from the provinces since it would cost them a leg to commute from Central Luzon, Calabarzon and the Bicol provinces. I recommend to Bayani the old unoccupied GSIS building at Arroceros Street beside the Manila City Hall.

To avoid Gwapotels from being abused, MMDA can prepare a guideline for screening applicants so that only the poor and truly deserving can be accepted. My gulay, instead of those putrid and stinking pink urinals!

I wish Fernando can go a long way with his Gwapotels. He can paint them all in pink for all I care. I would not even mind if he calls them ?Fernando?s Hideaway.? To that, I?ll even say, ?Ole!?