It's Business As Usual In Times of Hot Weather

Unfazed by the heat, locals seem  to "not mind the blazing sun" as the weather fetches high temperature challenging the ordinary human body's "tolerance",  as many Filipinos  go about town without any shield of protection.

Delayed DepEd Announcement of Suspension In Times Of Extreme Heat, Cruel At Its Best

Two points of contention: first,  it is always a lagging announcement ; two, the mode of learning is not shifted to online despite the glaring need to be flexible in school settings.

Locals Still Show Enthusiasm For Election Campaigns

 It's not yet frozen as locals show warmth for election campaigns.

Defying common impressions that Filipinos have lackluster attitude towards election- relation activities, locals of Laguna show keen impression for the

entourage of Senatorial candidate Bong Revilla as shown in the video.  

Unlike the previous decade when Filipinos electoral campaign were as colorful as the country's fiesta, campaign activities of late have become sparse and dime-a- dozen.

But all is not lost as locals still show smiles and a hearty welcome cheering for campaign convoys, side sweeping a minor street in Laguna bound for Cabuyao, while a nearby rotunda hall is filled with chairs will locals waiting as campaign kibitzers near barangay hall.

Depriving Moms of Jobs and Essentials Must Be a Criminal Offence

 Make it fair.

'TILL DEBT DO YOU TRAP

As good as your last pay, are customers shameless for "not paying" or are loan companies shameless for disrespecting?

Healthcare Access Becomes Impossible for the Ordinary

No Insurance, Low Priority Feels in Hospitals for the Sick and the Well-Insured.

RESTRICTIONS and "categorizing" patients as insured or non-insured, now more than ever.

It is a far-flung idea that kids would get equal treatment for basic hospital services, when across  the South Metro, kids are simply worrying about how to survive hunger in the city.

                                                                                                                                                            

As if the ordeal of the ordinary Filipino is NOT enough.

                                                                                                                                                            

We cannot miss it as patrons of  tertiary hospitals without the loud budget  for publicity or advertising-- that 

there have  been pretty rounds of changes in the quiet hospitals down south that my quaint media friends have been missing out on drumming up.

Restrictions, restrictions.  Or probably, a classification of the haves and the haves not.  Cam phobes and the cam newbies.

One, any kind of videoshooting or photo taking are strictly disallowed, or shall we say discouraged, however way hospitals are now fronting the warnings in their lobby and major seen zones.

But that's not really an issue for privacy loving citizens here in our home country, land of the nurses and medical practitioners.

The noticeable change is the increase in hospital charges for basic services, that could turn away patients who need treatment the most, the ones who need immediate treatment,  not just the walk ins for a clinic visit.

Also, allow me to point out a repeated reality for hospital customers:  

How come patients or customers have to mind their insurance, these changing times, with the insurance brand,  like a password to be spoken for that privilege  entry to the ER zone thereby separating the insured from the cash payors, and insinuating a need for status without really frank telling it?

Hope for all mercies, in ER this has been a customary question, but now it's like a salt being rubbed on wound of customers who have long been emburdened with the high costs of medicines and tests during the Covid pandemic.   It seems like there is no relief no surrender when it comes to ensuring profits ei?

Made to feel poor, ostracized even more in a surge of stiffening hospital rates in private hospitals, are customers supposed to gulp in these realities now that a number of hospitals are posturing "class A" status in imaging and brand building?

About a decade throwback, one can comfortably walk in with just less than a thousand cash on one's pocket just to avail the usual services in hospitals. The ER initial treatment included.  

Now, one would be found  in shameless, helpless situation if a customer walks in with just a USD 100 bucks of cash (you get it right it feels like American dollars in rates already), with the swooping high charges billeted by hospitals right now in the face of customer relapse to a lifestyle of luxe, where only the insured gets to be prioritized.

In truth, many ordinary customers do have insurance; but these are not often honored in tertiary hospitals, like those micro-insurance that are being promoted online in many e-commerce sites.

Soft spokenly, micro-insurances for health coverages DO NOT get the dignity of acceptance from hospitals, as some claim these micro- insurances do not actually pay when the charges are beyond the limits appropriated. 

Yet also some get declined for specific cases, while, in truth, micro insurances which most moms and local workers can afford do get a frown down from health professionals as these show status or low financial capacity already.

Are hospitals on the right track for lifting up the reputation of their brands by securing only acceptance of big insurance companies as they continue to improve and revamp their looks and amenities?

There is an obvious agitation of hospital patients and their families, when there is an obvious posturing of status in hospital services, 

when patients are accepted for treatments  based on whether one is insured or not. 

 

The high costs of services of private hospitals, and half-heartedness to entertain non-insured patients, are still as worse, as demanding hospital deposits prior to being admitted.

NRP February 06 2025.

Commentary

Home Credit Violates Customer Privacy

When two strangers pop out, and introduce themselves as loan collectors, are customers supposed to take it lightly?

Filipinos Not The Nicest But The Iciest In Real Life

 In real life I see cold people and they are quieter than you think.

Holiday cheers to a country of woes but never spoken as some middle class position themselves to have landed, titled and all without thinking about the socially deprived.

If human rights is not as popular an issue now that Atty Leila de Lima is no longer in the hottest of publicity, I don't know what else would help stir the cautiousness for the blatant disregard of respect against solo plight individuals in the country, the independent minded who doesn't have the backing of their betrothed clan or what have you.

In reality, there is no holiday cheers in a place that chooses to focus attention on superficialities of decor and human interaction, where in fact the ordinary people who plow their time and truth be told they are the quietest, continue to be hushed hushed soft spoken harassed in full view of conniving eyes and hearts.

I am referring to being bullied without regret from others.

One litmus test that stirs the recurrence of bullying  in the country does not really require measure of strength or weakness, but more about reading and seizing up personalities for  their  credibility or lack of it.

In the Philippines, the first ones targetted for slandering cruelty, a common form of bullying in the country, are the celebrities, media practitioners, followed by the  "lowly housewives".

Yes dearie, reality transcends that Filipinos do not want to be disliked hence the popularity of social media to lure likes and numbers so egos can be buttered up with follows and rarara I support thee rants that help pave way for the rise of bullies, who are not necessarily stellar but they feel they are when in the company of their likes.

Once the numbers are set, in  real life a cave is molded by the unsophisticated social conversationalist, the ones who reign that  take advantage of those that believe them.  

Rearing heat and feels that their supporters, followers,  believes and neatest of kin would always back them up to oust the unbelieved, unwanted, much hated media, celebrity or housewife next door.

Is it always about cruel intention that some can find the throb to hangup on one individual to make sure a person pays with indignity that he or she is shamelessly undignified hence one clan, one neighborhood or one camp can make sure all ends meet to shame someone they dislike?

Maybe not always. But the recent penchance of Filipinos to call one and all to shame people, persons they don't like, maybe a clapback to surround a wonted individualistic would not even merit the talk and muster of legal minds.

Bullying in not so claustrophobic situations are happening and it goes beyond the prying eyes of government officials who are busy planning the budget for the country, unknowns to them that the nicest do gooder Filipinos have long bid adieu because it is no longer fun in the Philippines, and they have reigned enough in an elitist culture that portrays the entitled homeowner as lords of the many, without respecting the dignity of the untitled they once were before they learned to mouth slander and build a reputation to be the wealthier ones than the outcast, the travellers, the transient, the migrants and those who cannot speak in the write protest.

Afterall what is being self-righteous if one cannot flaunt it?

May the clarity of truths and  nice wishes abide in the country this holiday season sans a dwelling need to up one's status against another by many locals.

Customers Are Treated Like Second-Class Citizens

Toss your hopes out of replacing your old  phones as  mobile companies continue to bolster their elitist positioning of "who gets to enjoy postpaid subscription", as the rest of the "diminutive" customers wait on for a lifetime  to be served an attitude of rejection, that is truly bereft of respect for the common consumers of mobile services

What Utility Service Providers Can Do to Better Their Service

Two companies posture a "no-care" attitude for consumers.

Of late, stalwart companies that provide crucial basic services even during a weather crisis-- like electricity and internet connection, have chosen the path of non-controversy by keeping their issues at bay.

    As in the case of electricity service, which is a priority for consumers, Meralco shunned any overt needs of the public to have a more "people-sympathetic rates" at the height of El Nino weather, especially when the ordinary Filipino household is quietly begging for truce in high-electricity bill.

    Given the average number of hours that the public has to endure during a heat surge, there is a basic six-hour window to escape, or flee from the horribly hot weather, even those who are  in the confines of their homes.  Yet, Meralco has not shown any efforts to  cushion the impact of giving a high electric bill to consumers-- without reprieve or breathing space to make amends with the financial burdens  that many consumers have already.

    The company continues to demand on-time payment of their bills, without any respite, but cannot give a beating heart answer for simple electrical consumption computation requests, should a consumer ask for  numbers on how much an aircon adds up to a bill.  A no-care approach to the out-in-the-open reality that electricity rates are already unbearable, when we compound it with additional demands  for a cooling system in a modern household.  

    In another situation, a utility provider, as if to show the consumers' inability to keep up with bills, chooses to incessantly pass on collection duties to an outside collecting agent, pressing a consumer to a point of "spam", to settle an overdue, and going deafly unheeding a customer request for a post-subscription assistance.  The cable company has been relatively slow in acting on consumers' requests, but would not hesitate to "castigate" or "politely remind" a customer through text, one's a bill is overdue.

    IT SEEMS THAT UTILITY SERVICE PROVIDERS HAVE LOST A SENSE OF SERVICE TO THEIR CONSUMERS BY GIVING A DEADPAN/ UNFORGIVING ATTITUDE MANY TIMES OVER WHERE IT CONCERNS BILLINGS AND ADJUSTMENTS OF SERVICES.  Point being, utility providers should exude consumer empathy in the normalcy of their needs and situations, at a time when the paying public are already emburdened with a lot of financial obligations that are hyped by the rising prices of commodities. 

    It is not at the moment an option for ordinary consumers of utilities to tone down their consumption,  because these days, usage are dictated by a faltering climate, and an uncertain economy that sees no  softening of commodity price increases. 

    BEYOND THEIR COMPANIES' NEED TO COLLECT AND GET PAID for their bills, whether service is intermittently interrupted or not, UTILITY COMPANIES MUST GROW OLD IN THEIR APPROACH to give CONSUMERS A MORE DIGNIFIED SERVICE. They must find alternate ways in making things better for all consumers.