Help Typhoon Sendong Victims through Synergeia Foundation
Synergeia Foundation is sending relief goods to our partners in Misamis Oriental. If you’d like to send your donations through us, kindly drop off your donations at our Rockwell office (Room 203 Ateneo Professional Schools) tomorrow, December 21, Wednesday. Our numbers are 898-3221, 898-2913, and 898-2617.
If you are outside Manila you can send your donations through LBC which will transport the goods for free. You can send them to:
Mrs. Flerida Nery
Xavier University
Corrales Avenue
Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental
Mayor Dexter Yasay
Municipal Hall, Poblacion
Opol, Misamis Oriental
If you’d like to send funds, the Land Bank account of the LGU of Opol is 000152-0230-06. Xavier University’s BPI account is CA 3081-1111-61 c/o Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan.
Thank you!
De Lima’s Debacle
If the Aquino Administration really wanted to prosecute Former President Arroyo, they should’ve filed cases against her a long time ago. What’s Secretary de Lima been doing these last sixteen months? If she’d filed the cases and obtained the hold-departure orders from the courts we wouldn’t be in this mess. Now she’s trying to take shortcuts because she didn’t do her job properly in the first place.
The Department of Justice had no legal basis to issue watch-list orders based on Memorandum Circular No. 41. Any citizen with no pending cases has the right to travel. A person can be barred from traveling based only on three exceptions: national security, public safety or public health. I got my legal education from watching David E. Kelley TV shows so I’ll let constitutional law expert Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago explain:
The right to travel is a constitutionally protected right, or in other words, it is a fundamental right. The right to travel means that if there’s any doubt if a citizen can travel or not, the doubt must be resolved in favor of the citizen. That is the meaning of the fact that the right is protected, not in an ordinary bill, but in the constitution itself.
The administration has disallowed Rep. Arroyo from going abroad on the ground of national interest. Notice that in the language of the constitution, national interest is not an exception. It is a very serious and grave mistake. To think that national security, public safety, or public health can be interchanged with public interest, they are putting words in the mouth of the Constitution.
The Department of Justice has no constitutional or legal basis—legal from the point of view of the Congress as legislature—for issuing watch-list hold orders or hold departure orders on its own. It must prove that there is a law that authorizes it. It only invokes its own Memorandum Circular No. 41. An agency cannot grant power to itself by issuing a memorandum circular. It is basic for an agency seeking power must be able to source that power from an enactment of the Congress of the Philippines, duly signed into law by the President. The memorandum circular is self-serving, and it’s not worth the paper it is written on.
Father Joaquin Bernas, Dean Emeritus of the Ateneo De Manila University School of Law and one of the authors of the 1987 Constitution, agrees. He observes:
What I seem to be seeing in all these and in some public reaction is that anger and hatred of GMA has taken over and reason seems to be consigned to the sidelines. That this seems to affect even the highest executive authorities is a sad, sad thing.
The bottomline is the law protects GMA’s right to travel. The law protects the rights of everyone, including former presidents accused of plunder and electoral sabotage (who are presumed innocent until proven guilty). Laws are not subject to the whims of administrations or public opinion. That’s for your protection, too. Rights guaranteed by the Constitution can’t be suspended just because people hate your guts. When application of the law is arbitrary, everyone’s rights are in danger. We should be worried that the rights of someone with the stature and wealth of GMA are not being upheld. Eh ano pa kaya ang karapatan ng mga karaniwang tao?
Yes, it’s possible that if GMA leaves she may not return to face the charges against her. Yes, the credibility of the Supreme Court is questionable, given that it is packed with Arroyo appointees. But the Supreme Court ruling is sound, however much we dislike the consequences. So who’s to blame if GMA manages to escape justice? The Justice Secretary who’s courting a constitutional crisis to cover up her incompetence.
Crappy Globe Customer Service and Number Portability Legislation
In my relationship with my telecom provider I’m not unlike a battered wife. I keep hoping that Globe will change for the better but it doesn’t. I’m reluctant to leave because of our long history together. I’m so invested in the relationship. I’ve done my best to be a good partner and I just want the effort I’ve put into making it work to be reciprocal. I want to believe Globe loves me and values me despite all signs that indicate otherwise.
I’ve had the same Globe number for what might as well be forever. The phone that came with the line was a Nokia 2110, the hottest phone to come out in 1994. I was in grade school at the time. I went to high school, college, and graduate school. I worked a series of jobs. I got married. I retained the same number the entire time.
The account wasn’t originally in my name, obviously, since minors with no income can’t own phone lines. It used to be under my dad’s company’s name, and then later it was transferred to my mom’s name. When I started working in 2004 I took over paying the bill, but it was such a hassle to have the account transferred to my name that I kept putting it off. But sometime in June this year I decided to bite the bullet and finally have the account transferred from my mom’s name to my name.
It was a three-step transaction. I wanted to:
1. Transfer the account to my name
2. Avail of an iPhone 4 under the rewards program
3. Change my plan to Plan 999 (unlimited internet, minimal number of free calls and texts a month)
And I wanted to do it in that specific order.
The account had to be transferred to my name first before I could claim the iPhone, because otherwise my mom would be locked to Globe for another two years. I wanted to get the iPhone before (or at least at the same time as) the change in plan because with unlimited internet, I could use a number of iPhone functions that would lessen my need to call or text. I relayed all of this to the guy at Globe Center Glorietta 3 who received my forms.
It took nearly a month to transfer the account to my name. I asked why this was and the customer service representative told me that “konti lang kasi ang taong mga gumagawa noon eh.” (There are only a few people who handle such transactions.) I am appalled that a telecommunications company that boasts of 25 million mobile subscribers and over a million broadband users with a revenue of US$ 1.2 billion and net income of US$ 276.2 million (as of Q1 2010) can’t or won’t hire more people to process simple paperwork.
The change of plan to Plan 999 happened even before the transfer of the account to my name or the arrival of my iPhone. I was a little peeved because I got the plan specifically for the iPhone. My defective Nokia N95 could not perform the iPhone functions I intended to use to lessen my text and calls. But I let that slide because at least there was some kind of movement on my account.
On July 27, I got my iPhone. A few days later, on August 1 or 2, it bricked. It powered off and refused to come back on again. I brought it back to the Globe Center G3 on August 3 or 4. They said it would take one to two weeks to replace the unit. It actually took three weeks.
“So… what am I supposed to do in the mean time?” I asked the woman at Globe Center G3 to whom I returned the defective unit. I was told that unfortunately they have no service units to lend to customers while their phones are being replaced. She said it as sympathetically as she could but the message was basically, “Bahala ka sa buhay mo.” (That’s your problem, not ours.) Assuming I couldn’t get a temporary phone, was I still expected to pay my phone bill for the period that I could not avail of their service? Apparently, yes. I don’t see how that’s fair.
I followed up at least once a week. The customer service representatives could tell me nothing. I wanted to know what the steps were in the replacement process and how it was progressing from week to week, e.g. Step 1 was done on this date, Step 2 will be done three days from now, etc. I got no such updates. I could not extract any specific details. I was expected to wait in the dark indefinitely for my replacement phone.
After my iPhone bricked I called the customer service hotline on August 3 to inquire about the possibility of upgrading to Plan 1799 (unlimited internet at 999 plus 800 consumable).
The cash out for the iPhone 4 at Plan 999 is 23,699. The cash out at Plan 1799 is 9,899. I’d already paid the 23,699. What I wanted to do was upgrade to Plan 1799, subtract 9,899 from the 23,699 I’d already paid, and then credit the remaining 13,800 to my phone bill. Basically I just wanted them to reallocate the money that I’d already given them — a large sum of money, I might add, for a benefit that I had yet to enjoy. I thought that this was a very reasonable request, and anyway it meant that I would pay them even more money in the long run.
The customer service representative put me on hold for a very long time as he inquired with higher-ups if this was indeed possible. He got back to me and said that it was, but I needed to call back on August 23 because my billing period is from the 23rd of Month X to the 24th of Month Y and they couldn’t make any changes to my plan in the middle of my billing period. But he did log my request and give me a reference number.
Even before the end of my billing period, I went to Globe Center G3 to follow up on my request to upgrade my plan and reallocate my cash out. I gave the reference number I was given on August 3. I just wanted to make sure that the change would indeed take effect at the end of my billing period and that all I needed to do was give them a call on August 23.
The woman assisting me, Jo Ann, looked up the reference number and said that it was not that simple. She said that authorization from Marketing was needed to make such a change. She said there was previously a similar case that was denied. But she would email Marketing and ask anyway.
Well, I said, when you write to Marketing, please detail the whole business with my defective iPhone unit. I repeated my entire spiel about how they’ve caused me a great inconvenience and how I simply want to reallocate the money I’ve already paid them for a benefit that I have yet to enjoy. She said she would. I asked if I could be CCed in the email. She said she couldn’t because the email was internal. Well, okay, I said. Please just keep me posted. She said she would email me if there were updates.
On August 23 or 24, I went back to Globe Center G3 to claim my replacement iPhone unit. It was Jo Ann who handled my transaction. I follow up on my request to upgrade my plan. She said Marketing emailed her back but it still needed someone else’s approval. She said she’d keep me posted. That’s what she told me last time but she didn’t update me with this development so I was doubtful.
I have lost so many hours of my life just transacting with Globe, both over their customer service hotline and waiting at Globe Center G3. Waiting time at Globe Center G3 is one hour minimum. You would think that Globe would hire more people to man their Center that’s right smack in the middle of the Makati Business District. Of Globe’s 25 million mobile subscribers I’m pretty sure there’s a large concentration of them in Makati. Presently there are 10 active counters in G3. But they have an entire floor below with 7 more inactive counters. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t hire more people to man those counters given their high customer traffic and ridiculously long waiting times.
On September 5, I called the customer service hotline yet again to follow up on my request to upgrade my plan. The customer service representative I spoke to pulled up my account but found no updates. I told him that Jo Ann of G3 was communicating with Marketing on my behalf, and that she said she would email me but she hasn’t. He said that he would get in touch with G3 and make sure someone got in touch with me the next day. At that point I was already extremely exasperated and I made him promise that I would get some kind of update the very next day. He promised. It’s been three days and I haven’t heard a peep from anybody.
Globe customer service representatives have this really annoying way of not answering my questions. I ask a question. They pull up my account. They reiterate the details of my previous transactions and calls. I don’t need you to tell me what happened! I know what happened; I was there! I want you to tell me what will happen next!
Sometimes during a call they’ll pass you around to different people before you land the one who can assist you with your particular issue. It’s exhausting to have to repeat all your information and your entire story, especially a complex one, three different times. There must be some kind of mechanism they can employ such that you only have to do it once. The customer service representative could at least brief the person they’re handing you off to. They’re called customer service for a reason — they’re supposed to serve their customers. But instead they make transacting with them so much work. I’ve had an easier time transacting with some government agencies. So much for private sector efficiency.
Globe’s customer service is so bad that I find it hard to believe that anyone stays with them by choice. Their shoddy treatment of customers does not exactly inspire loyalty. More likely, a large chunk of their subscribers are like me, for whom switching networks would be an enormous inconvenience. Switching networks would mean a new number. I’ve used the same number for over a decade, it’s on all the business cards I’ve ever had, and my accessibility to a vast network of contacts is supremely important to my work. My residential and office numbers have changed several times over, but my cellphone number has remained constant. I still have people I met ten years ago calling me up using the cellphone number listed on an old business card.
This is why HB04380* (“An Act Establishing Number Portability for Mobile Telephone Service”) has just made my list of priority legislation. Sure, it’s not as important as Reproductive Health or Freedom of Information or Electoral Reform but this absurd telecom hostage crisis needs to end. Without a number portability law, telecoms have very little incentive to improve their services. But if people can easily switch from one provider to the other and retain the same number, telecoms will have to work a lot harder to win and keep subscribers.
* HB04380 has been pending with the Committee on Information and Communications since March 22, 2011.
Update as of 2:00 PM: Globe just called and all my issues have been resolved. I don’t know if it had anything to do with this blog post or my tweet or with a friend reporting my issues to her Globe executive dad or if they just finally decided to give me a break. Whichever one it was, I’m extremely thankful and relieved. But, @talk2globe, don’t think for a minute that this means I’m going to shut up. I’m going to continue to be vocal about unsatisfactory service.
Poleteismo
I haven’t seen the art installation myself but I get the picture. A penis on the crucified Christ’s forehead, bunny ears on the Holy Family, etc. I can understand why Catholics are angry. What I don’t understand is why they’re not angry about all the other forms of “blasphemy” around them.
As some friends have pointed out, with the exception of the gallery wall, all the components of the exhibit can be found within a five-block radius of Quiapo Church.
Openly displayed on sidewalks next to religious statues and prayer booklets are sex toys and (pirated) porn DVDs.
Ride any jeepney and you will find a rosary hanging from the rear view mirror, a Sto. Nino on the dashboard, a proliferation of lewd messages, and pin-ups of “bold” stars. Millions of Filipinos see this scene every day and yet not a single devout commuter has complained about the unholy juxtaposition.
Go to a mall on a Sunday and you will see priests celebrating mass at altars framed by billboards featuring sultry, half-naked men and women. The body and blood of Christ is raised during the consecration in front the enormous bulging crotch of a Bench underwear model.
I don’t know what the artist’s intentions were, but if Poleteismo has achieved anything I think it has been to show the great irony of the Filipino Catholic response to “blasphemy.”
HB 4509 (The Sex Toys Bill)
Dear Representatives Tieng and Velarde,
A bill that criminalizes sex toys? Seriously? What’s next, a bill that bans orgasms? Please don’t deny everyone else the sexual pleasure you are incapable of enjoying because of your puritanical beliefs.
I don’t know how you could possibly enforce a law that defines sex toys as any device that “can be used to stimulate human genitals,” “could trigger sexually impure ideas” or “can give room to sex-related offenses”. Human beings are both horny and incredibly creative and will continue to find sexual functions for everything, and I mean everything. From phallus-shaped fruits and vegetables to common household items to random things for which you cannot, for the life of you, fathom an erotic application. In aid of legislation, may I submit for your consideration: isthisasextoy.tumblr.com.
Conservatives love to talk about colonial mentality and how loose sexual morality is the product of western values eroding our own traditional Filipino values. Actually, this prudishness about sex is the Western influence and what we deem immoral sexual behavior was the norm in these isles before the western powers colonized us. The Spaniards were shocked by the sexual freedom of the natives. Pre-marital sex, multiple sexual partners, sex toys were no big deal. A girl’s virginity only mattered if she was of noble birth, e.g. the daughter of a datu whose marriage was intended to forge a political alliance. Some of those sex toys they sell in Malate and Quiapo are traditionally Filipino, and a lot kinkier than many western inventions.
Wouldn’t you like to know what those are for?
Thank you for your kind attention.
Yours Sincerely,
Harlot, Heathen, Hoor of Babylon
Wedding Cake History
My interest in cakes is purely gastronomic, not symbolic. Wedding cakes have attached to them all these meanings that I simply don’t care for. Though the meanings have evolved over time, I’m still appalled by the history of the custom.
“The wedding cake has been an important part of the wedding celebration since Roman times when a thin wheat cake, representing bounty, was crumbled over the bride’s head to ensure her fertility… The groom would eat part of a loaf of barley bread baked especially for the nuptials and break the rest over his bride’s head. History tells us that breaking the bread symbolized the breaking of the bride’s virginal state and the subsequent dominance of the groom over her.”
I didn’t want to do the cake ceremony at my wedding for this reason. My mother dismissed my objection. I was being silly, she said. Silly because I don’t want to participate in a public spectacle dedicated to my virginity and fertility? Because I don’t want to continue a misogynistic tradition?! Apparently, yes.
Ryan of course thinks the Roman tradition is hilarious and asked if he could break cake over my head. So that it isn’t sexist he’d let me break cake over his head too. An amusing idea, but one that was ultimately rejected.
The cake ceremony also “symbolizes the first time the newlywed couple breaks bread as husband and wife, and it also demonstrates their pledge to support and nourish one another.” Cheesy, but at least more egalitarian.
“Most couples freeze the cake with the intention of sharing it on their first wedding anniversary. The tradition has its roots in the late 19th century when grand cakes were baked for christenings. It was assumed that the christening would occur soon after the wedding ceremony, so the two ceremonies were often linked, as were the cakes.”
Call me unromantic but I don’t relish the idea of eating year-old wedding cake. I prefer to attach sentimental value to things that are less likely to give me food poisoning.
Also, this tradition started in the 1800s? Electrolux patented the first domestic refrigerator in 1922 and G.E. introduced the first refrigerator with a freezer component in 1939. How were people storing their wedding cakes before then? A christening ideally takes place at least nine months after the wedding. Do you mean to tell me that people actually ate cakes that were sitting around in open air for nine entire months?! I’m genuinely scandalized.
Not that any of this matters now.
In which my fertility is ensured and my hypothetical virginal state is ceremonially broken
November 30, 2010
RH Now
This is happening! I’m proud to be a supporter of the RH bill, and to those who think that this is a fad, I will have you know that I have been an RH advocate for the last 10 years, long before RH was getting this much media attention.
The RH bill won’t solve poverty, but it will bring down the rates of maternal and infant mortality, decrease the number of abortions that result from unwanted pregnancies, educate the youth who are engaging in risky sexual behavior with no knowledge of its consequences, and promote equity for the poor by giving them access to reproductive health services that are easily available to the rich.
If you’re unconvinced that the poor need RH, I invite you to spend some time in Tondo to get to know the families who are living in squalor. Let me introduce you to Manong Pedicab Driver who has sixteen children and no pedicab (he sold it to buy medicine when his baby got sick). The family members eat once a day, if at all, and take turns sleeping on the cardboard floor of a shanty that’s barely 4 by 4 meters. Or 42-year-old Nanay Labandera who has nine children and whose last pregnancy nearly killed her. She doesn’t want to have any more children but she has no control over her reproductivity — her drunkard husband beats her when she denies him sex.
RH is just one component of poverty reduction. There is still much work to be done in numerous other areas. Thankfully we have a NAPC secretary who knows what he’s doing and a president who seems serious about poverty reduction, at least as far as budget allocation is concerned. I’ve never been a fan of President Aquino, but he has allocated more funds for poverty reduction programs than any other president before him.
I was fortunate to be part of a group of NGO representatives from various sectors with whom NAPC held a consultation on the National Anti-Poverty Strategy and Localization/Empowerment Framework. It’s a good plan, and it’s heartening that the government is sincere about listening to us and working with us. (Sige na nga PNoy, dahil rito at dahil sinusuportahan mo ang RH bill, peace na tayo.)
It’s an exciting time to be doing development work!
Royal Wedding Rant
Yesterday afternoon a friend asked me if coverage of the royal wedding was on.
I said I didn’t know, didn’t care, and launched into a monologue about how the monarchy is an irrelevant, archaic institution, how it’s ridiculous that citizens of nations who’ve fought for freedom and equality and the right to suffrage are fawning over royals who’ve done nothing to earn their people’s fealty besides possess certain DNA, how massive media coverage of the royal wedding is detracting from more important global issues, such as the fight for democracy in the Middle East, and how William and Kate are so royally boring. If they were going to get this much attention anyway they could at least try to be more interesting people. What use are a prince and princess who are, as the media likes to portray them, just normal people? No dragon-slaying or battles with evil sorcerers? What kind of stupid fairytale is that?!
My friend just looked at me like I was crazy and said, “I just want to see her dress.”
I need to lighten up.
What do Ashton Kutcher and hand-written letters have in common?
They’re both overrated.
This image has nothing to do with the post. I just thought it was hilarious.
Am I the only female whose ovaries didn’t explode with rapture upon reading Ashton Kutcher’s diatribe on romance in the digital age?
The power of a hand-written letter is greater than ever. It’s personal and deliberate, means more than an email or text ever will. It has a unique scent. It requires deciphering. But, most important, it’s flawed. There are errors in handwriting, punctuation, grammar, and spelling that show our vulnerability. And vulnerability is the essence of romance. It’s the art of being uncalculated, the willingness to look foolish, the courage to say, “This is me, and I’m interested in you enough to show you my flaws with the hope that you may embrace me for all that I am but, more importantly, all that I am not.”
I love receiving letters but I don’t see hand-written ones as necessarily superior to electronic ones. If it’s written from the heart, the content of the letter won’t change whether it’s typed on a screen or written on paper. I’m more interested in the message rather than the medium.
I can’t be wooed with paper, penmanship, or perfume. A hand-written letter from someone with a weak grasp of language and not much to say for himself will not make me swoon. But a thoughtful, well-composed text message from someone who can turn a phrase will make me go weak in the knees.
Willingness to show vulnerability is great, but I’d much prefer that a guy show me his vulnerability by opening up to me, by sharing with me his fears and dreams and innermost thoughts, rather than by presenting me with grammatical and spelling errors. You don’t need the latter to express the former. “Your beautiful” says to me that you are sweet, vulnerable and unable to tell the difference between a contraction and a possessive pronoun. In my eyes, that makes you significantly less appealing. Good grammar and proper spelling are sexy.
I think the problem with romance in the digital age is not so much that people have neglected old-fashioned forms of communication, but that despite the abundance of available communication tools, people are still not very good at communicating.
On Childbearing
I’m at that age where everyone is terribly interested in the contents of my uterus. It’s infuriating that no one seems to think that asking me about my reproductivity (or lack thereof) is intrusive and obnoxious.
It disturbs me that my inquisitors seem to imply that upon reaching a certain age, women should bear children whether they’re ready or not. I’ve repeatedly explained that I’m neither emotionally nor financially prepared for such a responsibility but this does not seem to be a valid reason for remaining childless. I get stupid responses like:
“But babies are so cute!” So are puppies, and they’re cheaper and lower-maintenance.
“Bahala si Lord!” This kind of thinking is responsible for the large impoverished families all over the country. Support the reproductive health bill.
“Kawawa naman parents mo, wala pa silang apo.” Bakit hindi kayo naawa sa aming mag-asawa? Hindi naman yung magulang namin ang magaalaga at magpapaaral sa aming anak. Bakit gusto mong maghirap kami para lang magkaroon sila ng laruan? Bibigyan ko sila ng tuta.
First of all, if and when I choose to have a baby is no one’s business but mine and my husband’s. I’m not the crown princess; my ability to produce an heir is not a matter of national importance. Second, while no one is ever 100% ready to become a parent, 80% is still a lot better than 20% and I’m still in the lower quintile. Third, social conformity is a stupid reason to bring a child into the world (or to do anything, really).
I’m aware that my biological clock is ticking. I understand that childbearing will become increasingly difficult and risky as I get older. I’ve been warned that by the time I finally feel ready to have a child, I may not be able to conceive one.
My husband and I aren’t overly concerned. We figure that if we get to the point where we want to have a child but cannot conceive one, we’ll adopt. When I tell people this they seem shocked, like adoption is not a desirable option. I can’t understand why. We would love an adopted child just as much as we would a biological one. We don’t see how the lack of common DNA would in any way diminish our family.
