FORMER Finance secretary Ramon del Rosario Jr. is taking Victory and Five Star buses in his group?s acquisition of the University of Pangasinan.

Bacnotan Consolidated, where Del Rosario is president, announced yesterday having reached an understanding with the family of Health Secretary Francisco Duque to acquire nearly 70 percent of the University of Pangasinan.

What was not announced was that the remaining minority shareholdings would be acquired in a tender offer by brothers Johnny and Cesar Hernandez, owners of the Victory Liner and Five Star bus companies, respectively.

?The Hernandezes are owners of, or investors in, some of our managed Microtel properties [like] Baguio, Cabanatuan, Boracay, Puerto Princesa, and Mall of Asia,? said Del Rosario. ?We enjoy a very good relationship with the family.?

?They expressed an interest in education, so we invited them to join us in the UPang acquisition.?

The Hernandez brothers, for their part, explained their venture into education.

?We want to have some business activities that help in nation-building. We started 50 years ago with around 200 scholars a year through our Do?a Marta Foundation and this endeavor is about furthering our commitment in educating the youth,? the brothers said in a statement.

UPang is the third venture of the Phinma/Bacnotan Group in education after Araullo University in Nueva Ecija and Cagayan de Oro College in Mindanao.

Money-go-round

? DDB Philippines has actually hired 22 personnel in the last four months, contrary to the Monday item in this column reporting that the ad agency had just retrenched 18 employees.

Among the new hires include a client service director headhunted all the way in Shanghai, said DDB Philippines president and chief executive Gil Chua.

? Despite having been appointed as chairman of the Philippine National Railways, Arroyo Bicol political operative Manuel Andal is still hanging on to his board seat at the publicly listed Philcomsat Holdings.

? BusinessWorld, for some strange reason, has decided to ignore the story about the impending acquisition of Philippine Star by the PLDT Group, which incidentally already controls 30 percent of the business paper.

Heard through the grapevine

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, in a last-ditch effort, is trying to find buyers for its ailing sister tabloid, Tumbok.

Failing that, the Rufino-Prietos have no choice but to terminate the ill-fated venture.

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