Monthly Archives: January 2008

11
Jan

Buwisit na buwis

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Habang ang karamihan ay nangangarap na masuspinde ang pagpataw ng 12% na VAT sa mga produktong petrolyo, ang rehimeng Arroyo naman (sa pamamagitan ng kalihim ng kalakalan Peter Favila) ay nangangarap na patawan ng buwis ang text messaging. Opo, mga text addict, dahil sa lakas ninyo magtext, nakaisip ng dahilan ang rehimen para makalikom ng pera para sa 2010.

At hindi naman pahuhuli ang dalawa sa mga pangunahing tagasuporta ng rehimeng ito. Ang dalawang ito ay kumakatawan sa grupo ng mga mangangalakal at mga malalaking kumpanya. Ayon kina (ihanda ang inyong mga sarili) Donald Dee at Francis Chua (gusto ko maduwal), sang-ayon sila sa panukalang buwis. Sabi ni Dee, mabuti raw ito dahil marami raw sa mga kabataan ang nagpapadala ng mga walang kwentang text messages.

Kung gagamitin natin ang napakalupit na lohika ni Dee, dapat din nating buwisan ang mga sumusunod:

* mga tawag sa telepono, singkwenta sentimos kada minuto, 100 piso para sa mga komersyal na linya
* mga email, piso para sa mga email na galing sa mga kumpanya, 2 piso kung galing sa mga kumpanya na may kapital na mahigit sa 1 bilyong piso
* mga anunsyo sa radyo, telebisyon, at dyaryo, 100 piso kada 1 libo na ginastos sa nasabing anunsyo, 1 libo kada 500 piso kung ang kumpanya ay may kapital na mahigit sa 1 bilyong piso
* mga board meetings, 1 libong piso kada 30 minuto ng pagpupulong; 10% ng per diem ng mga board directors
* paglipad patungo sa ibang bansa upang dumalo sa mga pagpupulong, 5 libo kada isang araw na wala sa bansa
* dami ng sasakyan ng isang kumpanya, 1 libo kada isang kotse, 5 libo kada isang trak
* mga palabas sa telebisyon, 1 libo kada isang minuto ng palabas, na babayaran ng producer ng palabas; hindi kabilang ang mga balita

Alam nyo na ang ibig kong sabihin.

Kumontra naman sa nasabing panukala ang TXTPower. Hinamon nito ang rehimeng Arroyo na pagbawalan ang lahat ng byaheng panglabas. Ayon sa nasabing grupo, gumasta ang rehimen ng halos 692 milyong piso para sa mga byahe ni Gloria Arroyo noong 2005 at 2006. Grabe, ano?

Ngayon, sinasabi ni Favila na wala raw silang balak na patawan ng buwis ang text messaging. Siguro natambakan sya ng text messages. Buti nga sa kanya.

—

Bakit mali na buwisan ang text messaging? Simple lang. Mas matipid magtext kaysa tumawag. Mas mabilis ito, hindi kailangan ang internet connection. Pwede ka magtext kahit saan, basta may signal, may baterya, at may load. Bakit mo bubuwisan ang isang matino, mabilis, at maayos na paraan ng pakikipag-usap?

10
Jan

CES 08 Notables, 2

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CES LogoListed below are the notables in this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, and why:

* Skype on PSP – A gaming phone is near. Just you wait.

* Cloudbook/Nanobook v. eee and Cloudbook’s coming – Should Asus be threatened? At the same price, Cloudbook/Nanobook appears to be better than eee, spec-wise (except for the weight). We’ll see. Everex better put gOS Rocket on Cloudbook.

* Curved displays – What’s next? a 306-degree-view display? Half Life addicts must be salivating at the potential.

* MSI venturing into mobile phones – First, they have to be aggressive first (they have nice notebooks spec-wise per price point). Second, have a better logo; why can’t MSI use its star logo instead of the logotype MSI?

* eee on Splashtop – It seems that Asus’ miniwonder knows no bounds. What’s next? eee pc server edition?

* USB 3.0 – At least we have an idea on how the connector would look like. Hopefully it is not vaporware.

* Point-here-and-there – Military generals would want this. Congress better look out.

9
Jan

Oil price slick

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ABS-CBN reports that any law that will suspend VAT for oil products shall be vetoed by Gloria Arroyo, says Finance Secretary Margarito Teves. The purported reason is that such a move will be “detrimental to the country’s economy and will only benefit the rich.” According to projections, the government stands to lose Php 54 billion from lost VAT revenues from oil if Mar Roxas’ proposed bill passes.

First, I don’t think Mar Roxas’ proposed measure will prosper. The House is firmly controlled by Arroyo lapdogs, and as such, a counterpart bill is impossible. Even if such a measure passes through the eye of the needle, Gloria Arroyo can simple veto it. And I doubt if both Houses can muster enough votes to override the veto.

Second, the government can always find a way to plug a possible deficit by reducing unnecessary spending. If these elected and appointed officials really mean it, the 40 billion shortfall can be cushioned or eradicated. For example, senators and congressmen and Gloria Arroyo can forgo their pork barrel allocations. Again, that’s impossible, given the kind of characters we have in government.

Third, Teves claims that only the rich will benefit from the suspension of VAT on oil products. He is assuming that the suspension will greatly benefit rich car owners. How about the middle class who owns cars? How about the jeepney and tricycle drivers and operators? And what about the so-called trickle down effect that this regime has been yakking about? Is that also one of this regime’s lies?

No. This regime is composed of goons who cannot afford to scrimp while the people it purportedly serves gets the shorter end of the stick. That 1% tariff reduction is just lip service. Imagine. A one percent reduction can mean a Php 0.23-0.25 in the price of diesel – and the people should be thankful for that. It will take effect two weeks from now, but independent oil players are already proclaiming an increase by January 15. There you go.

I find this piece of news curious:

She said if the tariff’s current rate remains at three percent the government will have windfall earnings of P11 billion but she added that this would be useless if prices of commodities go up as a result of high oil prices.

Using that logic, a windfall of earnings from VAT is useless if prices of commodities go up. Go figure.

So here are the main suggestions on how to cushion the effects of high oil prices:

* The regime slashes one percent from the tariff imposed on diesel. Token gesture as they say.
* Some lawmakers want the VAT for oil suspended. The regime calls it suicidal.
* The Left calls for the scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law. Businesses (specially oil companies) balk at the idea.

Hmm. Why not reduce the VAT rate for oil to six percent?

Do you have any suggestions? Leave them at the comments.

8
Jan

CES 08 Notables, 1

Posted by | Categories Byte | Tagged , ,

CES LogoListed below are the notables in this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, and why:

* Panasonic’s humongous TV screen – If that ain’t big, you must be Goliath. 150-inch plasma? You must have a net worth like Bill Gates’ to get one – if it becomes available. And soon. (Via Engadget)

* Pioneer’s extreme contrast concept plasma – Good thing I was not there, or I might have sensory overload.

* Bill Gates’ final CES keynote – Aside from the fact that it was the last time for Bill (ha ha ha, yeah right, first name basis) to keynote CES, the intro video was LOL.

* Asus’ eee pc with WiMax – It seems that Asus can’t go wrong with its eee line. I wonder how much it will cost. And with GSMA going for LTE, do not expect this unit to ship here (unless one telco offers WiMax here, ehem Bayantel). And those early adopters in the US must be puking now.

* Driver-less cars by 2018 – Finally, an incentive for me to get a car – if I have the funds by that time. But, nah. Unless GM ditches manual override, Filipino drivers will override the auto when they find the car slow. Filipinos are after all, more daring versions of Michael Schumacher. Either that, or these automated cars get attitudes due to horrendous traffic and undisciplined Filipinos.

7
Jan

Summit of stupidity

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The political buzzword for this month is – no, not related to 2010 – is summit.

When the price of crude oil reached US$ 100, the Department of Energy is calling for an Energy Summit this month. The summit aimed to seek solutions on how the cushion the impact of impending oil price hikes. Yes, folks, the political appointees at the DoE have no idea. No wonder a lot of people are calling this summit a waste of time. I agree. It is just that some of those who are complaining are clueless, too.

Anyway, with the strengthening of the Philippine peso against the US dollar, the impact should not be that hard, right? We cannot tell. Heck, we cannot even say if oil companies are being greedy or not, since most of them are private and thus their books are not open for scrutiny by government.

Then, the Bureau of Fire PreventionDILG is calling for a summit, too. The Galleria Baclaran fire, which raged for more than 24 hours, pricked a lot of egos in the Department of Interior and Local Government (which oversees BFP). All fire fighting volunteers who responded in that fire blamed the ground commander for the fiasco, first by raising the general alarm 3 hours after the fire broke out, and by ordering these volunteers to go away.

You know, it was incredible. There was an emergency situation, and these guys were squabbling. They need a summit to smooth things out. Incredible. They had been fighting fires since Heaven knows when, and they don’t even have a protocol on this? Absolutely stupid.

What’s more incredible? Marius Corpus recommending for a formation of an armed task force to keep fire fighting volunteers in check! Not only that. He also says they will be filing charges against these volunteers. Tsk. These actions are typical responses from Arroyo lapdogs.

Incredible. Absolutely stupid.

Oh well. Remember that dialogue that the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters ng Pilipinas had brokered between the government and the media in the aftermath of the Manila Pen affair? Nothing was accomplished, right? These two summits will reach the same fate, the same way that the Feliciano and Melo commissions ended – producing useless reports and nothing else.

As long as Gloria Arroyo is busy doing something else (don’t ask me what she’s really doing), reports and recommendations will remain as that – papers that will remain unacted.

6
Jan

Another weird dream, 10: Prolly last of the bunch

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Well, yeah. No one wanted blog posts about dreams, so it is only apt to end the series at 10th.

Recorded as a note on the cellphone at 1:24 AM: building, powerbooks, blackout, scary corridors, cat, ball, adrian, ice, officemates, rgcruz, jove. I was hoping at that time that by noting down keywords, I will remember what I had dreamed about. Anyway, here is how I remember that dream.

I was with friends Adrian and Ice at a building. We were inside a Powerbooks store, and we were just browsing for books. We were about to exit the store when one of us (I can’t remember exactly who) wanted to look for an ebook. So we went back in and looked for the audio section. A power interruption occurred, and it was pitch black for a few minutes, then dark gray – the kind that we see in videos taken using night vision cameras. Then we saw ourselves in a corridor, like the ones you see in theaters, and a black cat was playing with a black ball. Scary. We saw a door, marked with characters and I can’t remember the words now. They were scratched using a pointed object. Opening the door there was a staircase, and we descended one level, only to find some of my officemates. Exiting the building I saw TV news reporters Jove Francisco and RG Cruz.

So at that I woke up and noted some keywords in the cellphone.

That’s it – the last of the series, good while it lasted. I will continue the series under a new title. Dream Chronicles, perhaps? Any suggestions?

5
Jan

Another weird dream, 9

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For this week (yes, a week), my nights have been filled with dreams. Freaking enough, most of them involved cemeteries.

Before that, I think I haven’t shared it yet. I always get death-related dreams, and thankfully enough, they do not involve dying. The dreams involve one of the protagonist to be dead already and in a coffin. And yes, the dead protagonist is always a relative, either alive or deceased in real life.

Anyway, I cannot remember exactly most of the dreams this week, but I remember two, including last night.

In the first dream, I was looking for the place where my maternal uncle was interred. In real life, his remains are in the same building where his maternal grandmother is buried, at Chinese Cemetery. Anyway, in that dream I can’t seem to find the place, since the building was enlarged, almost as large as most columbariums today. I gave up on finding, and I found myself in a parking building besides a wide highway.

Not freaky, I know.

Last night, I was with my parents, and we were looking for transportation. My parents wanted to go somewhere, it was hard to get a ride, and I was advocating that we abandon the trip. But they were insistent and eventually we found a ride. We got to the place – a gated alley full of spider webs, in between two mausoleums. They got in, and on each side I found lathe machines. There was a tomb at the end of the alley. It was small, so most likely it belonged to a child. Then a ghost of a child appeared at the right – the ghost looked like Sadako without the face and the fingers. We lighted a candle and the ghost disappeared. Then I woke up. It was 2AM. I made sure to note it down lest I forget it again.

Happy Halloween, ha ha ha!

4
Jan

Pagtaas patungo sa Enchanted Kingdom

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Nagulat ang marami sa mga tumataya sa Super Lotto 6-49 kahapon. Nagtaas kasing bigla ang presyo sa pagtaya. Dati, sampung piso (Php 10) lamang ang bayad para sa anim na numero; ngayon, dalawampung piso (Php 20) na.

Matatandaan na dati ay sinubukan na ng Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) na taasan ang presyo ng pagtaya sa lahat ng larong lotto. Nagpaskil sila ng mga anunsyo sa mga tayaan ng lotto ukol sa nasabing pagtaas, kaya marami sa mga mananaya ang nagreklamo. Sa sobrang dami, napilitan si Gloria Arroyo na ipahinto ang nasabing pagtaas.

Ngayon natin makikita kung gaano kasuwail ang mga tauhang itinatalaga ng rehimeng Arroyo sa mga opisina ng pamahalaan. Para hindi na makapagreklamo ang mga mananaya, hindi na sila naglabas ng anunsyo ukol sa pagtaas. Hindi ba isa iyang uri ng pagsisinungaling? Ano pa nga ba? Eh iyong mismong punong nagtatalaga ay sinungaling, ano pa ba ang dapat nating asahan?

Mas nakakatuwa ang sinasabing dahilan ng pagtaas. Kailangan daw ng PCSO ng karagdagang pondo para mas marami pa raw ang mapagsilbihan nila. Saka dumoble naman daw ang jackpot prize.

Teka. Bago ang bola kagabi, ang jackpot prize noong Linggo ay nasa Php 50 milyon lamang. Ngayon, ang lumalabas na jackpot prize ay nasa Php 60 milyon. Ang pagtaas ay simula Disyembre 31. Bakit ganun lang ang naging jackpot prize? Di ba dapat mas malaki na kasi bente pesos na ang taya? Hay, ewan.

Kulang sa pondo? Bakit hindi ninyo bawasan ang gastos nyo sa mga anunsyo nyo? Tutal halata naman na ibinebenta nyo lang naman sa tao si Gloria Arroyo. Mas makabubuti siguro na ilaan na lamang ninyo sa mas makabuluhang bagay ang pondo sa pagbayad sa mga anunsyo na si Gloria Arroyo ang pangunahing makikinabang.

Pero baka tama nga ang butihing arsobispo ng Lingayen-Dagupan.

—

Nakakatawa ang mga nangyari kahapon.

Mula sa Twitter twit ni Ederic Eder (ito at ito), nalaman ko na kapag binisita mo kahapon ang mga Web site ng Kagawaran ng Hustisya, PNP-CIDG, at ITECC, dadalhin ka ng Web browser mo sa Web site ng Enchanted Kingdom. Tawa ako nang tawa kahapon.

Kung sino man ang gumawa nito: sana ganyan ang ginawa nyo sa Web site na ito.

Para kay Gloria Arroyo: tanggalin mo na ang mga tagasulat mo ng mga talumpati. Yung paggamit mo ng pariralang “Enchanted Kingdom” sa iyong talumpati ay isang karima-rimarim na katangahan.

2
Jan

Say no to Charter change this year

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Second day of year 2008, and what has the Fortress thrown at us? Chacha (charter change, dummy)!

I admit that our Charter needs some changing, but expect me and others to oppose Chacha. You see, the people at the Fortress are so untrustworthy that hearing the word “chacha” automatically means “beyond 2010” and “Fidel Ramos” for me. The fact that Eduardo Ermita is a known Ramos man adds to the uneasiness. And don’t forget another Chacha dancer named Jose de Venecia.

The reason for Ermita’s comment on Chacha was to facilitate the creation of a Moro federal state, a stumbling block in the peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. As I am not well-informed about the Mindanao situation (except for that fact that it hosts some of the poorest provinces, and that it had given us Garcillano, Bedol, and Zubiri), I cannot discuss this topic with enough confidence. However, Chacha is a different story.

Again, Chacha is not that bad. As I have said, some provisions need to be changed or removed. However, there is a general distrust about any moves to amend the Charter. And I can’t blame them. The Fortress has never been forthright on its dealings; it has stonewalled on several issues; it had resorted to dubious means to ensure its hold to power. So it should not be a surprise if people reacts negatively to any Chacha moves this year.

My point is that you can never trust this regime to stick to the Moro federal state as reason for charter change. You can never trust it not to insert provisions that will change the system of government, or to remove term limits, or to remove any impediment for Gloria Arroyo to remain in power beyond 2010. Heck, if you can trust someone who patently and consciously lied, there must be something wrong with you.

In other parts of the world, such distrust would lead to a resignation. Here in the Philippines, you go to hell.

No to Cha-cha this year. No to Cha-cha until Gloria Arroyo is out. Period.