If you will describe in a few words our presidents in the last 30 years, what would it be like?
Ferdinand Marcos -martial law
Cory Aquino – failed coup attempts
Fidel Ramos – economic growth?
Erap Estrada - corruption
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo - martial law-like rule, failed coup attempts, economic growth?, corruption
Happyslip, one of the most popular YouTube personalities, is home. A Filipino-American who grew up in the US, she’s never been to the Philippines where her parents were born. (Incidentally, her dad came from my home province Nueva Ecija, so I learned).
Christine a.k.a. happyslip is popular for her humorous videos depicting mostly of her Filipino family heritage. I’m a fan, the lady is down -to-earth funny. For the first time, though, she cries on video. Guess being home is overwhelming, eh.
She’ll be traveling across the archipelago with the Department of Tourism. I just think that this is the wittiest promotional activity that the government has done so far. Imagine millions of YouTube viewers across the globe (translation: potential tourists) watching her as she tours around the wonderful tourist destinations.
Over the holidays, I visited a childhood friend. We had a little chat and did some catching up.
The last 10 minutes of our conversation revolved around that one idea he popped up. He currently is a jeepney driver in Quezon City. He talked how he admired me for what I have achieved and wished that he is also “in the office doing honorable job”. The Filipino version of what he said is actually more striking, he said, “Sana mas marangal ang trabaho ko.”
I asked him how much is he earning in a day. He said a good day would have him bring home around P600. I’m amazed, because as I told him, a regular office employee earns only P300-350 per day, answers to a nagging boss and has to be in the office at 8 am and leave only after 5 pm. That unlike him, they don’t own their time and certainly don’t own the business.
Lots of Filipinos leave for abroad because they thought life abroad is better. Maybe. Or maybe not. Some think lowly of a farmer and thinks that an office secretary is a better job.
I just think it’s all about perspective. A change in perspective creates a big difference in the way we live our lives and further, how people create impact in our country.
eBay Philippines is serious about growing their operations locally. They have recently relaunched with a design facelift — even got actress/singer Jolina Magdangal as one of their front pages’ model. And, with the complete process offering of Paypal, the sister company, to local users, it has become even more interesting and exciting. Yesterday’s mass email from Paypal said:
Express Checkout – Up to 40%* increase in conversion rate on your site. Integrate Express Checkout on your site and increase your conversion rate up to 40%. It helps your buyers save time and pay fast using information they already have securely stored with PayPal.
We now have the missing link for active trading, an online payment processing system. I wonder how local auction sites will take eBay’s aggressive plans.
This information is circulating on emails lately. I find this very informative especially if you drive along Metro Manila and has been abused by MMDA, MAPSA and other local traffic kotong operatives.. It’s originally entitled “How you can challenge petty abuses of MMDA personnel…”
I just reached my limit last week-end, and decided to take action against the abusive MMDA enforcers. I basically called up the MMDA head office and inquired from the Personnel Officer, Antonio Pagulayan, to clarify their policies. Here is what I got.
If any of these abuses seem familiar to you, Mr. Pagulayan has asked that you call either the MMDA hotline (136) or call the METRO BASE at 0920-938-9861 or 0920-938-9875 and ask for an Inspectorate. They will send inspectors to the place where these MMDA officers are extorting, even while you are arguing out of your apprehension.
1. MMDA officers are not allowed to group together in order to apprehend.
They are not even allowed to stand together in groups of 2 or more. The only time they are allowed to work together is for special operations (probably when they apprehend groups of buses for smoke belching);
2. Swerving IS NOT a traffic violation. Moving one lane to the left or right is not swerving, no matter where on the road you do it. And it is even less of a violation when you do it with a signal. Swerving is defined as shifting 2 or more lanes very quickly. So you can argue your way out of this, and call the Metro Base for help;
3. Sadly, using the yellow lane is a traffic violation and will get you a ticket. However, buses are really not allowed to go out of the yellowlane, so if you see selective apprehension of private cars only, you may complain;
4. MMDA has confirmed that your license MAY NOT BE CONFISCATED at a traffic apprehension. The only time they can do so is if you are part of an accident, or it is your third violation and you have not settled your fines yet. They are only allowed to give you a ticket, which you can contest. He recommends actually receiving the ticket in some instances, so that you can report the officer who did it.
Also, you are free to ask any of these officers for their “mission order”, which is written by their supervisor. If they apprehend you for a violation that is not in their mission order for the day, you can report them and they will receive disciplinary action.
So go out and enjoy! And drive safely!!!
