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.

“It's Time We Move Out of Exploitative Content"

 “Its Time We Move Out of Explotative Content".

 

Still riding high on “pabida” content online? Move on. We must-- all.

Word translation/ interpretation of meaning:  “pabida”-- colloquial >>> When this word is incorporated into a sentence, it means one is “trying” with discernible effort, to portray one self as a leadman or lead star, the hero or heroine in a story, plot or content. Or in another form, employing "pabida" angles or messaging in content substance, can be viewed as a social media strategy to get attention or arouse reaction from readers, viewers or whoever is the intended recipient of a message or action/reaction.

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Blogs and vlogs these days would have punctuated already that the content in the era of social media is always self-serving rather than altruistic; unlike in the past timeline when neutrality is at least idealized by media providers.

What is self-serving content that  treatens decency  

POV of content: "I or me" approach, that puts the spotlight on  the personal exploits or "day in the life" happenings of the narrator or blogger/vlogger or his/her situational realities.

Lack of language restraint in using words that could be characterized  or categorized as "loud" or unacceptable in other social groups.

Simplification of an issue that should be treated as complexed.

The baring or show of skin by those who are shown on cam or published in content form, to gain controversy.

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    When a magazine show recently featured one vlogger getting a heydey  from the good profits he has been reaping from a street food venture, this gave a lot of positivity to the audiences knowing that  this "street vendor's entrepreneurial story" can be an inspirational one for others. 

    The toss coin or side impact of the publicity gained by the vlogger whose business was "fairyly" and popularly patronized?  His past reputation and negative background was digged out by others,  thus cancelling the supposed advantages of being in the news or popularly featured online.

    Many of the current blogs/vlogs and content are really intended to create avenues for earning or gain opportunities for the content creator who may have been deprived ordinarily with work opportunities,  outside his/her rose to fame. 

    But the apparent transfer or shift of control of multimedia from the hands of responsible content producers, media entities and stakeholders, to allow opportunities to be democratized by individuals, have also endangered the boundaries for privacy, decency and  willingness of others to be exposed on camera.  Candid shots and videos of private individuals who do not want to be seen online, when uploaded, can be a violation of personal privacy and space.

    On the erring ground for content creators, it is not totally freedom of expression that we employ when we explore on topics that push others to debate on the controversial,or challenge the existing opinion of many. 

    Rather, it is the lack of freedom of others in imposing a "no, we refused to be seen on camera" statement, that can be heard reverberating without a sound from the innocent subjects of video cameras. Say perhaps a baby that cannot speak, a teener who cannot defend its own or a woman without enough clout to impose privacy against another's wish.

THUS, OUR "PABIDA" STYLE OF REPORTING, OR CREATING OUR BLOG/S AND/OR VLOG/S MUST BE TAPERED TO PROTECT THE INTERESTS OF THOSE WHO CANNOT SAY NO TO VIDEO LIKES AND POPULARITY THAT  LURE MANY TO BEAR OR TOLERATE A CONCOCTION OF PRIVACY ISSUES, WHILE BEING DOWNCASTED IN SOCIAL MEDIA.

commentary for the ordinary. News Review Philippines by Anna Liza VB.

WHY MEDIA MUST BE A FORBADE INDUSTRY

 Hapless, helpless unless you make it a money industry.

An open letter to the incoming Mass Comm students

Where Have All the Buses Gone?

 

Amidst the Heat, Commuters Fill to The Raft an Airconditioned Bus. There Were Not Many Around.

There is a deep ratio discrimination on the number of buses versus the mini-est of e-bikes on the road.

                                                                                               

                                                                                               

About a year ago this writer has noticed that despite an attempt into normalcy, that has lapsed from a digital revolution high expectancy to a lackluster future for many, the usual transportation that used to be around to make things convenient for countless commuters, are no longer the visible PUVs plying their normal route.

 

For example, before the pandemic, a wait for an airconditioned bus along the Alabang-Zapote road Pamplona stretch, would not take five minutes. 

 

At the height of El Nino and even as the authorities bewilder about the La Nina to replace it, an ordinary commuter who wants that simple luxury of an “airconditioned”, bus would have to wait for not just up to 15 minutes, but up to 20 to 40 minutes instead. 

 

An airconditioned bus would have meant a lot to ensure a continuance of “normal work/daily routine” for mothers and commuters who want to get a respite from the hyper-intensified heat of the weather. But alas, the wait these days have become like a penitence of sorts.   The number of bus brands have also trickled and yes, a lot have fickled in choosing their passengers as well.  Only one from the familiar bus names before continue to hover around town, in more prevalent hours, to serve commuters.

 

Also, despite more commuters trying on non-airconditioned buses that used to be for the economically challenged, the open somewhat "al-fresco" buses come in reconfigured two row seats like the jeepneys.  These have become a dichotomic statement for the commuters’ lifestyle—for the teens, lolas and workers who are coming from Las Pinas, leaving for the Baclaran route.

 

As we all know these days, a wait for a ride in 15 minutes haunting, is no longer the same as a wait in recent two or more years that passed, at a timeline when waiting, despite being time consuming, can still be patiently done.  Now waiting is tantamount to "PENITENSYA", or sacrifice of sorts and no one seems to take on empathy for the commuter lifestyle.

 

It seems that nobody really took to heart the effects of EL NINO and how to respond to this weather as it dramatically impacts our lifestyle. 

 

To complicate further a passenger who finds himself or herself in a hush for hunger or thirst while waiting, would have to wait for another block to be able to find the nearest food stop in main malls that offer a more democratized alternatives for meal stopovers.    

 

As a commuter waits to endear himself/herself to other commuters, to be able to squeeze into a bus space for that now “human right” or “right of survival”  enjoyment of air-conditioning even in low peak hours in buses,  one would have to contend with a long wait on the streets by the metro, with no shade, or  commuters roof nearby that have been positioned to care for the commuters. 

 

This simply is a testament of our usual, “beat it ‘till you make it attitude”, with many who could be hoping for more action and support against the El Nino weather. 

 

As commuters, we can choose to express a welcoming, "don't sweat the small stuff" attitude in facing the sun.  But that won’t feed or protect us as enough. 

 

Noticeably, there is a slimming quantity of buses, and this ushers in a new hardship for the pocket-wise commuters.

 

We cannot surmise the fact that any leadership would aspire for a modern transportation system that would brag about an increase of status in our economy. But these ain’t happening if the usual things we whine about commuters' need, are not responded to.

 

We need more airconditioned buses that are affordable. And a more kid-friendly transportation mode for anyone to relish.    

 

Against the posing of status by many motorists in their luxury vehicles, those who have not probably even experienced the ills of El Nino outside their well-manicured lifestyle, commuters must loud it out that TRANSPORTATION MUST BE NOT ONLY RELIABLE BUT CONVENIENTLY AMENABLE TO ALL CONSUMERS.

 

We Couldn't Care LESS about the Weather

 

While scientists from all over have sounded the alarm button, the country is STILL, hand tied to age-old issues of territorial integrity, food insecurity, and more.

Netizens Get Intrigued Over Accent, Citizenship of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor

Netizens on the thread of a popular commenting/ community sharing site, are talking about Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, and they're flooding the topic with such zealousness.

Going as far as how her accent, citizenship and schooling appears  "sus" (slang), with netizens dissecting point by point their concerns about the real background of the now "controversial" mayor.

Some netizens leaped frog on various topics that intrigued them about the mayor, who is now the subject of a Senate investigation related to POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators).

Deep commenting on the Mayor's less known background which one commenter claimed the mayor seems to have "come out of nowhere", netizens  are going as far as raising issues about the Tarlac mayor's  "accent";  "grammar" and even more prying questions about her "birth certificate".  

Even the local politician's previous homeschooling status, where thrusted into the  commenting site.

The netizens seem to be fixated not just on the controversy she is entangled with, but that they are intrigued that the mayor's surname, does not have mainstream familiarity to the locals, and is  not part of the usual family names that are identifiable to local politics.

NRP May 21, 2024.

Is Cavite Snubbing InterCity Migrants?

So commuter unfriendly. So uncomfortable to walk around during El Nino weather.

Some Like It Rude.

"Tindera", Saleslady, Staff?  However way you call it, some has embraced a "lakas maka-nega" attitude.

                                            

Some Things Ain't No Longer Free, Such as Mall Parking

It will just be from a distant past that parking spaces at a local mall in Las Pinas, used to be free.

Parking spaces at a local mall are fully-occupied during intense hours of El Nino weather.

Para-Paraan Moves By The Locals To Beat The Scourge of El Nino

                                            

When Smart People Are Made To Look Desperate In Times of El Nino

The underserviced disenfranchised professionals in niche industries continue to be helpless, and without a hope for a future.

                                            

                                            

Five years after the pandemic and at a time when El Nino has poised to rid of most jobless professionals hope for help and opportunities, none has changed but a pile of debts or debts of gratitude for the jobless.

Maybe, it is the soaring chance for the Philippines to take charge of its fate by owning it's path to progress. But the jobless and the disenfranchised do not feel this road being taken for them too.

What good news that slightly have given  hopes is that about news of an age-old problem being resolved by a tycoon who has done here, this writer will spare to mention, a  giant feat and fest for the cleanup of the dirtiest parts of the Metro. 

But for the rest able wealth Mavens, who are in the position to give best of opportunities for employment and financial assistance, most continue to give a blank face on those who have been forgotten.

Professionals who have charted an age way past their prime but still productive to work for crucial industries like food manufacturing, and the women who have previously bowed time for their profession, those who have settled in their simple lives as homemakers, continue to be outside the fence of hope.

These two examples of professionals have become a dirt swept under the rug by many movers and shakers in businesses who dare not treasure hire the relentless outcasts.

Here outcast is meant to mean people who were discriminated intensely by their own colleagues or probably  by a system enforced by the Human Resource Personnel in companies that matter.  

For reasons that aged workers have lack the youth value, or have a baggage to rut.  

What HR would hire a housewife with needy clingy kid/s, when one can hire a fully made up young applicant who will not budge at having a low salary or probably brave the hot weather for a chance to work at a big corporation?

As the the outcast ageing  employees wait for their turn for opportunities and help, they who were smart in their own work experiences, have to contend with an empty sack of rice, or a cold shoulder treatment every time they knock and pound on for  help from others.  

Why flutter for the needy when some, if not countless, are  trying to hoard their wealth, or should we say "conserve it",  when there are lots of uncertainty in the economy?

One thing, the recent bout with a 46 to 51 heat indeces that felt like people were over ready to be baked, did not at all push the wealthy, the powerful, and those with the means to provide, a help structure or reprieve, or at most an emergency base for the jobless professionals to cling on to, and probably reach out those who could be living a hardlife in times of El Nino?

With unprepared houses in urban areas, and a lack of contingency offer at the very most important level of government service, the local government has gone quietly unspoken on how to  sustain its own residents beyond the posturing for  glamorized photos.  

Like  providing the essentials such as positioning emergency water stations in many spots in the city that should serve free water to the locals;  or the installation of the emergency "tolda" or shade that can be perused by the people when out on the streets, nothing, no little moves can be felt by the heat battling locals.

Meanwhile, the smart ones who are still piling up on their needs for opportunities could not even fair seek the help being given to those with the right "kapit" connections or community of "beshies" (slang for best friends or alliances), who push help only for those who belong to their fence of supporters, and not to those who have fallen against their favor or status estimation.

Most professionals who fight the lack of employment opportunities, have to heed more challenges in times of El Nino, for there is no true well meaning financial institution that would really cradle them to their broad shoulders and fix the problem caused by discrimination or neglect of employers who could make things better.

We must not allow discrimination in all fronts of services or pick who to side with in times of contingencies and emergencies.

When help and opportunities are  needed, it must be given freely without the need to demand for it.

Regardless if the one who seek help or a trove of opportunities, is jobless or bout fallen.

Edited.