Pilipinas, you need to work

Sulpicio Lines files case vs PAGASA for ‘faulty forecasting’

Seriously?!?! Blame the weather? Is that the best they can do? How can they explain that they were the only vessel who left port that day? Other who left earlier took refuge in nearby Batangas ports until the storm had passed.

Princess of the Stars only latest in string of tragedies

The tragedy that struck Philippine waters last Sunday is not something new. Yet despite the history of Sulpicio lines regarding accidents in the sea. Why do these things happen?

Both government and company are to blame. There is no lack of technology or awareness that there was a super typhoon coming and the travel route would lead them directly to the path of the storm. The coast guard should have not allowed the ferry to sail at a time when the storm was to make it’s way through the country. The company should have exercised extreme caution. You’d think that they’ve learned their lessons from the past.

No amount of “documents” that detail the ship was seaworthy is enough of a gauge that it could withstand the typhoon.

Sad to say that no amount of anger on this blog or any other blog will bring the lives of those passengers back. But hopefully, we will have a voice this time. Through blogging and through web 2.0, bring this issue and make sure that this never happens again.

As the saga continues on our Philippine television sets (until something else happens), should the government be allowed to control our electricity. After having seen how they run this country, would we really want them to?

Let me describe a situation regarding this. Is the country leading to an oligarchy or have we been living it all this time?

Ever since we “declared” our independence, powerful families have controlled our country for generations. Almost everyone who has or is elected or appointed into power is related to a certain degree from another.

Banking institutions, electricity, television, newspapers, telco companies, malls, groceries, basic products and so on. And we let them. Why? To a certain degree, they’re doing a lot better job than the government. But in any system there’s always a bad side. We have monopolies. We don’t see it but it’s there. Why else why there isn’t any Ikea or Target here in the Philippines? Why are our phone companies limited to cities that they are given licenses? The government says that it’s there to protect us. But it’s there to protect those who owns these business. We are unable to compete in the global economy because our country operates in a closed environment.

Wouldn’t it be better for us “little” people to have a very competitive atmosphere? We all act this way because we’re too engrossed in petty arguments that have no real impact to the ordinary person. The sad part is that we eat it all up. Everything that our television, newspapers and radio reports is more enthralling than any soap opera on tv. In any case, I want to be proven wrong. I want to believe that every little thing I do amounts to something good, not only for me but also for others. But if everything would be as strictly controlled as everything as they want it to. Then it’s best to look somewhere else for progress.

At the height of the Meralco’s power woes with the government, another ZTE witness with PROOF!

For the uninformed, ZTE refers to one of China’s largest IT company who won the bid to provide the Philippines with the infrastructure for high speed broadband. Yay! The contract was canceled by the President due to anomalous dealings and complaints from the losing party of the contract. Over the past 12 months, Senate hearing after senate hearing has produced various witnesses but to date has achieved nothing nor has it passed laws to prevent things like this from happening.

Anyway let’s get to the point. I’ll rant about the other things attached to this case another time.

This witness has come out at a time where the largest power company has be called to the senate to answer for their high power rates. Now doesn’t this all seem a little odd? Trying to draw attention away from the reality at hand? Wooing the public back to the faults of the government?

What is not seen is the fact that Filipinos do not see that they are being led on from one government issue to another with no clear resolution. Unless that this ZTE thing is brought to court and not in the Senate (where nothing really happens anyway), this issue will just drag itself all the way to 2010.

The current tv drama that some people without a life a re sucking out of the legislative body of the Philippines is the electricity situation in the country.

The Manila Electric Company, or Meralco has been in the hands of the Lopez family since electricity came to the country in the early 20th century. Fast forward almost a hundred years later, the government is accusing the company of jacking up power rates too high and passing off it’s losses to the consumer.

This compounded with the fact of rising gas prices (I’ll get to the gas in another blog post) has not made the situation any easier.

One way to paying less electricity? Lower your carbon footprint! Turn off that computer or that monitor when you’re not using it. Replace light fixtures with more energy efficient ones. Airconditioners and refrigerators are the largest consumers of electricity. Unlike in the west, we are fortunate that we don’t use washing machines or clothes dryers that much.

Why is the power company passing on their loss to the consumers? Sure there are illegal taps. Illegal taps in the country amount to 50% but no one gets charged. Why is no one charged for it when there are laws that say it is illegal? That is why it is just so blatant. It’s no different from the water taps as well. No one will be able to live in the city illegally thus reducing the financial burden of those who pay.

In the end it’s everyone’s fault. The laws work. It’s the people who are tasked with laws aren’t.

Some FilAms sending rice home to ease crisis for relatives

It’s true folks! Balikbayan boxes from the US are no longer filled with “the Nike shoes” or bags of chocolate. They are now filled with sacks of rice. So all those Manila Boxes, Star Cargo and LBC shipments be warned if they seem a wee bit heavy this month. They’re filled with rice!

There’s no stopping gas prices from climbing in the United States or anywhere for that matter. But there are stark differences on how people perceive these things.

Most people believe that the oil companies are milking the public because they’re selling essentially a limited resource. While it may be true to some degree, that’s what most Filipinos believe.

Filipinos have poisoned over the years by leftist propaganda that it’s all to make the rich richer at the expense of the masses. (If that doesn’t sound communist talk to you then I don’t know that is). These people fail to realize that we’re not the only ones using gas powered cars in the world. That we don’t need oil for house heating. We only use it for transportation, electricity and cooking. While the most of the northern hemisphere have to burn fossil fuels in order to survive the winter season. All they see is me me me me. I’m getting poorer because of high gas prices.

Get over yourself. Be grateful that it doesn’t cost you $4/gallon of gas. That you don’t drive a V8 car/ SUV or that we don’t need to heat our houses since it’s already 90F here. You cannot blame the government about high gas prices because it’s expensive everywhere you go.

The simplest solution. Reduce your consumption of gas. Duh! If things are getting a little expensive then learn how to drive smarter. Driving your car slower will not help you save gas, it actually makes you use more gas. So there! Until you get an electric car. Stop complaining it’s a global thing. Stop being part of the problem, become the solution.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Mangrove loss ‘left Burma exposed’

For anyone who follows storms, each storm is called something else depending on where it originated such as hurricanes for Atlantic Ocean storms, cyclones for Indian Ocean and typhoons for Pacific residents. They may have different names but the amount of destruction these storms can cause is all the same.

The cyclone that hit Myanmar is almost Biblical in it’s wrath. 23,000 dead with 40,000 more missing. Filipinos should be worried.

As we hit the months of June and July, it heralds the first months of the rainy season. Unlike western countries that have four seasons, in the Philippines it’s only wet and hot. And when it rains, it pours.

The Philippines is no stranger from typhoon calamities. There’s always one every year and the death toll has been less than a 1000 or so over the past years. But with Global warming making storms like these even deadlier, the Myanmar tragedy could hit our island nation.

Our denuded mountain forests and diminishing mangrove marshes, the Philippines lack these natural defenses against storms of this magnitude. We have been fortunate that only one major storm struck Manila, but even then the two hours that the eye just passed beyond the outskirts of the city caused widespread destruction and power loss for more than a week. What if more than one storm hits us in a season? I doubt that we are prepared for the worst.

Nature will hit back at the Philippines in a big way. We’ve just been able to dodge a lot of bullets lately and the next one wont be as easy. Should we start planting those mangrove forests? Of course! Better late than never. Just pray that we don’t have to wait for 23,000 deaths on our own soil to start working.