Davao City's Support For Senator Gordon’s Text Tax Bill On

Davao City councilor Pilar Braga is supporting Senate Bill 2402 mandating telecommunication companies to remit fifty percent of their text revenues to the government for the development of the country’s education system and health programs.

The bill, which was introduced by Senator Richard Gordon, provides for the creation and funding of HEAP or the Health Education Acceleration Program which seeks to rehabilitate the country’s education and health programs.

The Philippines is known as the texting capital of the world with an estimated 65% of its population having access to a cellphone capable of sending SMS or text messages. With an estimated 400 million text messages sent per day at P1 per message, Braga said, roughly P200 million a day can be contributed to HEAP, a substantial amount that can address the backlogs in the country’s health and education infrastructures.

Braga said the country is faced with a deteriorating educational system with 267 barangays suffering from lack of public elementary schools and four municipalities without public high schools. Majority of the Filipino school children are also undernourished as per World Bank data.

The telecommunication companies are earning multi-billions of pesos a year from text messaging alone with combined earnings of P77 billion in 2007. If half of this can be used to finance the country’s education and health programs then it can go a long way in improving the country’s literacy rate and health programs.

Most Filipino Doctors Speak English?

I was doing research for a client who owned a sophisticated cosmetic surgery center in the US and I came upon this website owned by a Filipino doctor who specializes in cosmetic surgery.

The site was promoting Asia particularly the Philippines as an aesthetic destination considering how affordable the country's cosmetic procedures are.

One of the selling points mentioned in the site is the fact that "MOST FILIPINO DOCTORS SPEAK ENGLISH". I find this line an affront not only to Filipino doctors, all of whom can presumably speak English after they have hurdled four years of College and another four years in Medical School where the medium of instruction is ENGLISH. How come the line says "Most Filipino doctors can speak English" when the presumption should be all Filipino doctors can speak English? Else, their understanding of their medical books can be pretty scary considering they are responsible for extending the lives of people based on their education.

The Philippines is known for being one of the best English-speaking countries in Asia and while education continues to be a challenge in the country I believe this competitive advantage still exists. Even the street sweepers can speak and understand English albeit not the one spoken by most academicians who are blatantly particular about every rule in the grammar books.

I remember that time when Filipinos particularly bloggers protested the slur committed by Teri Hatcher in the movie Desperate Housewives when she casually mentioned that she was just making sure that her doctor got his education anywhere but in the Philippine diploma mills or something to that effect.

Perhaps the owner of this website should edit his text. What do you think?

PASG's Raid On Unioil Illogical

The legality of the raid conducted by the Philippine Anti Smuggling Group at the Unioil terminal in Mariveles, Bataan just this week is for the courts to decide. However, the logic behind the raid of Unioil as per the words of PASG head Antonio Villar is funny.

Villar was quoted on television interviews saying "ano'ng human rights violation bahala na sila dyan..." or something to that effect shows that the guy needs to attend a human rights seminar or even a basic criminal law subject to understand the intricacies of human rights and proper arrests. Moreso, this guy probably needs to be briefed on proper public relations because the way he spoke those words on television made him look like a remnant of martial law.

Based on Villar's words, the small oil companies or all oil companies for that matter should be wary when they lower their fuel prices. In short, they should always follow the prices of the other companies just like Caltex, Petron and Shell to avoid being suspected of smuggling.

Villar said the ability of Unioil to reduce fuel prices by P3 is suspect: kasi bakit sila kaya nila eh yung malalaking oil companies eh di kaya?" The logic is plain stupid. This is the same question being asked by the masses and even by the government albeit of a different tact. Why can't the big oil companies lower their fuel prices when the smaller ones can?

Beware Of Internet Job Offers

Dabawenyos dreaming of working in the land of milk and honey and in Euro-rich countries like London should be wary of job offers they get from the Internet. This was the warning from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration amidst reports that a lot of Filipinos have been duped into remitting recruitment payments to bank accounts and Paypal accounts of unscrupulous recruiters.

POEA warned that every job offer should be double checked by inquiring with the proper offices including the POEA and the companies for which the applicants are supposed to be deployed after they pay the recruitment money.

Will Galoc Oil Benefit The Filipinos?

Will the recently-discovered Galoc Oil Field in Palawan Benefit The Filipinos? Yes, according to Energy undersecretary Zamzamin Ampatuan who said the oil find will ultimately trickle down to the Filipinos directly or indirectly. Coming from a family of politicians that have made themselves rich but left millions of Muslims in Cotabato POOR, this seems hard to believe.

But let's give Ampatuan the benefit of the doubt.

However, one of the investors in the oil drilling venture said he doubts if the oil find will lower down fuel prices in the country considering that the joint venture will decide where the oil will be sold. And from a businessman's point of view, he said, the oil would be sold to the highest bidder so that they can recover what they invested and of course make some profit in the process. The government cannot do anything about this because it was a mere onlooker in the whole process. All it can do is get a certain percentage which political speculators said, will be a great source of funds for the coming 2010 elections.

So where's the benefit to the masses in there?

How Many Calories In Your McDonald Burger?

The various McDonalds outlets in Davao are always filled with people that I am not sure how Dabawenyos will react if their favorite McDonald outlet will shutdown in a day or two. Calories-deprived perhaps?

This is what calorie-addicts from Venezuela will feel when they visit any McDonald outlet in the country and find that all branches of the calorie-food chain has been ordered closed by the Venezuelan government for 48 hours, not for being calorie-rich but for allegedly committing tax irregularities and inconsistencies as shown in their account. There are 115 McDonald branches in Venezuela all of which have been ordered closed from Thursday to Saturday.

The closing down of McDonald, albeit for only 2 days, is not surprising considering that it is the closest you can get to Uncle Sam wherever you are and President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is a fierce critic of the United States.

There are at least five McDonalds outlet in the city---SM City, Matina, Ilustre, two in Victoria Plaza. Despite that, the joint is known for providing high amounts of calories to the Dabawenyos’ palate. Take this:

McDo Hamburger = 254.0kcal
Big Mac = 492.0kcal
Regular Fries = 207.0kcal
McDonald’s Quarterpounder with Cheese is however the runaway winner with 515kcal

Davao Call Centers Not Bothered With High Agent Turnover Rate

Call Centers worldwide particularly in economic centers like Metro Manila and Cebu City may be having problems with the fast turnover of call center agents but this is not a problem among Davao City call centers.

The normal turnover rate is placed at 30 to 40 percent but the Call Center Association of the Philippines reported a higher turnover rate of 60 to 80 percent. This was however debunked by Nannete Del Mundo of Cyber City and Arlene Ozoa of the 611 Call Center operated by the JIB Career Center. De Mundo said the survey may have been based on the experiences of call centers located in congested areas like Manila and Cebu.

The fast and high turnover of call center agents is blamed on stress, pressure, irregular work hours, boredom and health reasons.

Unlike Manila and Cebu based call centers which offer extraordinary incentives to encourage the employment of more call center agents and to limit the high and fast turnover rates, Davao City call centers offer only a salary rate of P8,000 to P14,000 without such incentives.