These are the days I like to see happen everyday. Not much to rant about the Philippines until tomorrow or Friday when gas prices are going up again. If this country was actually working I wouldn’t have this blog at all.

Sigh. Let’s just hope this lasts for a while.

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.

Nearly half of LTO enforcers suspended, grounded

How do you expect people to follow road rules when traffic enforcers aren’t enforcing the laws? Everyday, traffic officials are involved in some form or corruption or another. This has led to many unlicensed public vehicles roaming the streets of Manila leading to further congestion of the streets. Stealing away passengers from duly licensed ones.

More vehicles on the street means more traffic and pollution. Not to mention increasing the number of people who don’t know how to drive on the streets. It’s already bad enough that you can get a driver’s license without ever taking the test. What’s worse is that they’re on the roads endangering the lives of many.

These officials fail to realize that when you give someone incompetent a driver’s license and put them behind the wheel of a truck, bus or any other public vehicle, they are putting lives in danger. It’s not enough that they’re just trying to make a living or earning a buck. That won’t be enough to pay for any damages they inflict while working.

I cheer LTO Chief Alberto Suansing. Keep it up. Rid our streets of incompetent drivers and traffic enforcers. Impose order on our streets and we will all save time and energy in the long run.

Once again prices at the pump went up another P1.50 this Saturday bring the average price of gas to P59.57. Barely hitting the P60 mark this makes Manila gas prices at around $5.16 a gallon. And it’s really hurting.

What used to cost me a full tank is now only half a tank. I fill up every two weeks and on Thursday. That allows me to avoid the long lines at the pump every Friday night. I’ve changed the way I drive and get gas. I think I’m saving some money. Luckily I haven’t reached the point where I may have to take my bicycle to work yet.

Sulpicio: Customs cleared pesticide shipment

Apart from the possibly hundreds of lives lost in the ship disaster of the M.V. Princess of the Stars, it turns out that the wreckage itself could be toxic.

Apparently 400 cartons of pesticide bound for Cebu shipped by Del Monte Philippines (who has large pineapple plantations across the archipelago) was not supposed to be on the tragic ship. Because the pesticide is a controlled substance, it is only supposed to ride with cargo and not with passengers.

Almost a week into the salvage efforts it was only known today that the ship carried the dangerous cargo in it’s belly. Officials only found out through Del Monte and not through Sulpicio lines.

Sulpicio Lines defended itself that it did not know the contents were pesticides and that documents which the Bureau of Customs issued stated that it was “Endosulfan, technical”. To the non-chemist and farmer, Endosulfan would be a strange word for me and thus refer to the next word which would be technical.

Things are getting interesting here. It seems that the ill fated ship is uncovering even more things other than bad weather. Because of the global attention to this tragedy it highlights the inefficiency of our government and maritime industry.

How could the Bureau of Customs allow dangerous cargo get on board a passenger vessel? Why didn’t Sulpicio lines disclose the full contents of the ship other than passenger manifest? What else lurks beneath the waters of the MV Princess of the Stars?

Sea tragedy exposes ageing ships, dismal Coast Guard budget

For a country with more than 7 thousand islands to patrol and protect, you’d think that we’d have a large naval force.
That is not the case for the Philippines.

Very little budget is given to protect our waters. This opens up the whole country for tons of illegal activities. Human-trafficking, drug trafficking, pirates (yes sea pirates), illegal fishing and many more. Basically, the Philippines is unable to protect it’s waters.

But what will happen now after this tragedy? The Senate and Congress will hold inquiries and investigations “in aid of legislation” on who is to blame for this. They will waste hundreds of hours on and off television to point fingers and show to the viewers that they are doing their job. In the end they will accomplish nothing.

Some aide will discover that there are laws against this already and just move on to the next issue at hand. Anything to put their face on television or on newspapers. The issue will forgotten until the next ferry or ship sinks to the bottom of the sea and the cycle repeats itself again.

Are we doomed to repeat our mistakes over and over again?

P668-M DepEd multimedia gear ‘wasted’ — CoA

Apparently the cyber education program of the of the government has just wasted away over P600 Million of our hard earned taxpayers money. According to Manila Bulletin, items delivered were either defective or just stored in the boxes they were delivered.

This is just sad, to think that all those computers just went to waste. All that money never went to the hands of the students. Who is to blame? The Department of Education should have prepared their teachers for this. As a matter of fact, teachers should actually go through regular training to update their knowledge and skills to match the changing curriculum of education.

But still it’s a waste. And that’s the way our government works.

Obviously I was away from my computer last week and thus no new posts until yesterday. So here I am taking on gas prices again. One liter at the pump now costs P58.07. That’s another P1.50 increase from my last gas post. This brings the price of gasoline in Manila past the $5 a gallon mark.

Beat that California. We’ve got higher gas prices than you and nobody seems to be using less energy here. No real mass transportation, no investigation on why pump prices are going up this fast.

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.

Yesterday I predicted a P2 increase in gas prices in Manila. I was wrong. It turns out to be P1.50. That is such a big difference. Maybe they’ll do the P2 next week.