I-bagsak!!! I-bagsak!!

Imperyalista, I-bagsak!

Kapitalismo, I-bagsak!

Ako: Boss! Boss! Bakit ho kayo nagrarally?

Siya: Ipinaglalaban namin ang karapatan ng mga manggagawang Pilipino! Masyado na tayong sinisikil ng mga negosyanteng naghaharing-uri sa ating bansa (sabay punas ng good morning towel sa pawis na tumatagaktak sa noo)!

Ako: Ano ho bang idinadaing nyo ngayon?

Siya: Hindi makatarungan ang umentong P22 wage increase na inaprubahan ng Pamahalaan!

Ako: Bakit? Ayaw nyo po ba ng increase sa sweldo?

Siya: Hindi katanggap-tanggap ang P22 na itataas ng sweldo! Dapat dito'y at least P150 na accross the board ang itinaas ng sweldo. Wala nang makain ang mga pangkaraniwang empleyadong nagtityaga na lang sa noodles araw-araw!

Ako: Eh paano naman po yung mga negosyante? Hindi ba sila malulugi sa taas ng hinihingi ninyong dagdag-pasahod?

Siya: Ang mga mahihirap patuloy na naghihirap! Ang mga mayayamang negosyante na yan lang ang patuloy na yumayaman dito sa Pilipinas! Sila ang nagpapakasasa sa lakas at talento ng mga manggagawa, samantalang hindi naman makatikim ng kaginhawahan ang mga taong maliliit!

Ako: Yumayaman pala ang mga negosyante, eh bakit hindi na lang kayo magnegosyo?

Siya: Pangkain nga, hirap kami eh. Saan ako kukuha ng kapital?

Ako: Bakit wala kayong kapital?

Siya: Dahil nabibilang ako sa mga dukhang pang-araw araw na pantawid-gutom lang ang kayang ipundar!

Ako: Eh bakit po ba kasi kayo mahirap?

Siya: Tumabi ka nga riyan! Ginugulo mo ang demonstrasyon namin!

Imperyalista, I-bagsak!

Kapitalismo, I-bagsak!

Beware of NSE Philippines (International)

It pays to investigate and do some research.






I was reading the 4th installment of the Harry Potter Book series (Goblet of Fire) while waiting for my wife one night at the Mercury Drugstore Tandang Sora branch when one guy approached me and asked what I was reading. He then proceeded to ask other information about the Harry Potter story and even commented that he liked Harry Potter rather than the Twilight series. I answered reluctantly and proceeded with my reading.



After a while, he continued to chat with me and asked if I'm waiting for somebody. Not wanting to show some disrespect, I again answered his question and closed the book, hoping for my wife to arrive soon. He then asked me what church I'm attending. I said I am attending at the Jesus Loves You City Church, a born-again church at Mandaluyong City.



I was glad when he said to me that he is also attending a christian church at the back of Megamall, Ortigas and that he is handling a cell group every week. Because he seems allright and introduced himself as a christian, I gave in and conversed with him. He even asked me my cellphone number because he told me that he might be inviting me if there are activities on their church. He also presented himself as an IT-related person working for in Ortigas. I even commented that he has no problems going to church because his work is near his church at St. Francis square.



After a week or two, a guy called me up and introduced himself as the one whom I was able to talk to at Mercury Drug Tandang Sora. He then proceeded that he is actually an executive of a multi-national company and asked me if I am willing to take some part-time job that can give me additional 15,000 to 20,000 income per month. He assured me that it will not, in any way, humper my current work, and that I will only consume about 4 to 6 hours per week for the part-time job.



He even said that he found me nice to converse with, and that I am the type of person that would fit well for the job, the plus factor of which is my current profession being an accountant.

Sensing some irregularities (1. first off, he introduced himself with a work related with IT then later he said he's an executive 2. how come he can gauge that I am fit for a work when we only met for about 10 to 20 minutes 3. he didn't even see my resume 4. he didn't present the name of the company), I asked him what is the nature of the part-time job that he offers.



He said that he can't discuss the matter over the phone because it is too long and the line is a bit choppy. He invited me to come to his office either on Monday at 6:30 p.m., or on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. so he can discuss fully about the business proposal. He also told me to come on business attire because he said that they are an American company and I need to look well during the interview. He also clarified that I should be on-time in order to show that I am a professional person.



He then said that his office is at the 15th floor, Octagon Building, San Miguel Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig. Until this time, he still did not disclose the name of the company. I persisted on knowing the name of the company, and finally he felt obliged to say that the company is NSE International.



I confirmed that I would be coming over on the Saturday schedule, but before Saturday came, I tried to check on the internet about the company's business.



I was glad to have checked because I found out that NSE Philippines or International or is actually a Networking Business that offers NUSkin products, and that they are forcefully persuading people to give some investment money.



(To be fair with the guy who invited me, I sent him a text message to say that I wouldn't come to his office because I am not interested to join any Networking business, however, I haven't received any response since then)



Let me make it clear that a Networking Business is not actually bad. I know of a lot of friends who are into networking, and I admire then for having that gift of marketing prowess. But for those of you out there who are into it, give us a favor and:




1. Be honest with your intentions. Tell prospective recruits directly about the business and about what you are offering to them.



2. Do not force people to layout cash. People get interested with networking and part-time business because they want to earn extra money. If you get money from them by forceful means, it is no good.



3. Do not make out stories that are not true. Tell only the truth about the work/product, and don't sugarcoat.








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Browse over at what google has to say about NSE Philippines, and find out about the complaints:



key word1: 15th floor octagon building

key word2: NSE Philippines

key word3: NSE International

Tsinoy Rules

Kundi lang talaga kailangan, hindi ako pupunta ng Divisoria. Napilitan lang kaming magpunta ni Misis dahil kailangan naming bumili ng souvenir para sa kasal ni utol.

Dahil nga christmas season na, sobrang dami talaga ng tao. Dito mo talaga mararanasan yung maglalakad ka kahit ayaw mo, dahil sa ayaw at sa gusto mo, itutulak ka ng tao pasulong.

Sa Divisoria, walang mayaman, walang mahirap. Lahat ng tao, pantay-pantay dahil lahat sila, lumalakad sa iisang maputik na daan, nakikisalamuha sa lahat ng tao, kumakain sa pare-parehong foodstand at foodcourt, nakikipagsiksikan, nakikipagtawaran.

**********

Inabot din kami ng halos isang oras papunta sa may Adora kung saan kami umorder ng souvenir.

At dahil nasa Divisoria na rin lang kami, nagpunta na rin kami sa 168 Mall para tumingin ng christmas gifts para sa office at para sa mga inaanak.

Ngayon ko lang halos naintindihan kung bakit napakaraming tao ang nagpupunta sa Divisoria araw-araw (lalong lalo na kapag christmas season). Napatunayan ko na kung may isang bagay kang gustong makita o mabili, pumunta ka sa Divisoria.

Nagkalat ang prutas tulad ng mansanas, kiat-kiat, ponkan at ubas.

May damit para kay baby, may shorts para kay daddy, may bestida para kay mommy, may pajama para kay lolo, may duster para kay lola.

Hindi magkamayaw ang mga nagtitinda ng parol, mug, swiss knife, flashlight, office supplies, memo pad, relo, laruan, payong, lahat! makikita mo. Dito siguro mag a-apply yung sinabi nila na "Makikita mo ang hinahanap mo!".

Kapansin-pansin din ang mga China phone na kaparehong-kapareho ng mga original. Dati nang may immitation ng Nokia phones, pero noong Sabado lang ako nakakita ng immitation ng Samsung, Blackberry, Sony Ericson at iPhone. Daig pa nila ang original, dahil ang China phones, may TV! Noong Sabado, may bago pa silang ino-offer, dahil may mga telepono na raw sila na Wi-Fi Ready. Sa'n ka pa?

**********

Pinay ang mga saleslady. Sila yung mga tumatawag at nagsasabi ng 'Ano po'ng hanap nyo Sir?', 'Pili na po', 'Cellphone po ba? Ano'ng unit po?'

At sa loob ng bawat tindahan, sumilip ka at makakakita ka ng among Intsik.

Maraming pure chinese. Pero karamihan, Tsinoy.

**********

Tsinoy, o Pintsik, sila yung mga cross breed na ng Pinoy at Intsik. Mga simpleng tao lang, mga simpleng manamit, pero siguro, walang sasalungat kung sasabihin kong sila ang nagmamay ari ng Divisoria.

Dahil sila ang may ari ng business, sila ang kumikita. Ang mga pobreng pinoy (na kargador) at pinay (na saleslady), umaasa sa arawang suweldo.

**********

May napili kaming items. 45 pesos ata ang isa. Kung bultuhan, 35.

Sabi namin, 30 pesos na lang, dahil 40 pcs naman ang bibilhin namin.

Sabi nung Intsik, "kung 30 pesos nyo bibilhin, wala kaming 40 piraso. Pero kung 35 pesos nyo bibilhin, meron makukuha sa bodega".

Who Moved My Chiz?

It came a bit of shock to many nang biglang nag-resign si Chiz Escudero kahapon bilang miyembro ng Nationalist People's Coalition o NPC (na pinamumunuan ng Chairman Emeritus nito na si Danding Cojuangco).

At a time when almost lahat ng tao ay inaasahan na magdedeklara siya kagabi ng pagtakbo bilang standard-bearer ng NPC sa 2010 elections, biglang nagpatawag si Chiz nang presscon sa Club Filipino, San Juan kahapon nang umaga upang i-announce na nagbitiw na siya sa NPC.

Immediately, a lot of people are clamoring for answers on why Chiz resigned. Political analyst Manolo Quezon has this to say on twitter:

--------------------
@mlq3:"chiz's big backers had been danding, lucio tan, and i think razon (enrique). w/out EC (danding), LT (tan) won't bet big. Dunno re: Razon and friends."

and to which i replied:

@joyagustin: super power pala ang mga supporters ni chiz. danding, lucio tan, and enrique razon. wow! is business synonimous to politics?
NP and NPC, is there a big possibility?

@mlq3: NP-NPC as possible as PaLaKa-NPC, maybe Gibo has patched up quarrel with uncle.
--------------------

I'll be emphasizing about BUSINESS being SYNONIMOUS to POLITICS.

Later on, political bloggers started to swarm the web and post their respective views about Chiz bolting out of NPC.

I will want to quote some important parts of the commentary of Pat Mangubat in Filipino Voices:

--------------------
1. Let’s face it—the primary reasons behind Chiz Escudero’s decision to resign from NPC are: he lacks the funds after his big-ticket financiers withdrew and he is being weakened by defections.

2. His ratings went down when Senator Noynoy Aquino entered the political fray. Two things which hurt Escudero: rumours of a merger of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) and the administration and Escudero’s association with Marcos crony, Danding Cojuangco. Signs of a merger began to percolate as early as August, after government asked the Supreme Court to convert coco levy shares at SMC from ordinary to preferred shares. With the prospects of a merger, that, surely will completely turn off progressive groups supportive of Chiz Escudero’s. Defections began to hurt Escudero’s camp, particularly that of the Osmenas who transferred to Noynoy’s camp. Osmena reportedly transferred after getting signs that Danding was half-supportive of Escudero’s bid. Osmena also took the cue from Lucio Tan about Escudero being “young” and ” still unprepared for the presidency.” That intensified defections, especially of financiers from the Filipino-Chinese community.

3. Danding Cojuangco’s last minute refusal to attend the big rally at the UP to announce his presidential bid, was more than enough signals already that the former Marcos crony was un-impressed with him.

4. Chiz has no choice but to resign from the party and declare himself a “free agent.” By doing so, Chiz hopes to re-consolidate his mass base support by positioning himself as a non-traditional politician, someone not beholden to any political party nor any big political financier.

5. Possible scenarios/results of Escudero’s resignation: 1. NPC and admin party will now have full rein for a merger. The possibility of Teodoro-Legarda tandem is now in the works. 2. The Liberal Party will move to convince Chiz to either endorse Noynoy’s bid or ask him to join the process of selecting the true People’s choice of a non-trapo candidate. 3. Should Chiz proceed as an independent candidate, he will damage Estrada’s bid, weaken Noynoy’s mass base and eventually allow Manny Villar’s victory in the 2010 polls.

Pat's full article here
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Magulo, masyadong magulo. Maraming pwedeng mangyari pa dahil malayo pa ang eleksiyon at marami pang baliktaran at alyansang mangyayari.

Business tycoons and financiers are reading the signs and looking at where the wind is blowing to see whoever they would support in the final stretch.

Basta ang naging malinaw sa akin ngayon, POLITICS IS SYNONIMOUS TO BUSINESS.

**********

"If you do not change, you can become extinct."

-from the book Who Moved My Cheese

A Few Good News

How's these for a treat? Here are a few good news for consumers:


Cellphone Loads

Beginning Sunday, July 19, 2009, the shelf life of cellphone load/credits will be increased, according to the National Telecommunications Commission. This resulted from the Senate Inquiry conducted when Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile complained about the "vanishing/missing loads" from cellular phones.

Additionally, beginning July 23, spam or advertisement sms messages sent by the telecommunication companies to their subscribers will be prohibited, unless consumers subscribes first from their promos.

The new shelf life of cellphone loads are as follows:

P10 - 50: 5 to 15 days
P51 - 100: 30 days
P101 - 250: 60 days
P251 - 300: 75 days




Rent Control Act of 2009

Republic Act 9653, or the Rent Control Act of 2009, signed by President Gloria Arroyo on July 14, specifies that there should be no rental increase for one year from the time the law has been signed and approved. Also, it puts a cap of not more than 7% increase of rental fees until 2013.

It also specifies the following conditions:


The law covers all residential units in Metro Manila with a monthly rent of P1 to P10,000 and all units in urban cities with a monthly rent of P1 to P5,000.

Violators face a fine of P25,000 to P50,000, or imprisonment of one month and a day up to six months, or both.

According to the law, when a unit becomes vacant, the owner may set the initial rent for the next renter. In the case of boarding houses, dormitories, rooms, and bed spaces, no increase will be imposed more than once a year.

It also says that rent will be paid in advance within the first five days of every month, or at the beginning of the lease agreement unless the contract of lease provides for a later date of payment.

It forbids the owner from demanding more than one-month advance rent and more than two-months deposit. Any interest in the deposit will be returned to the renter at the end of the lease agreement.

If the renter fails to pay rent or utility bills or destroys house property, the deposit and interest shall be forfeited in favor of the unit owner in the amount that would cover the arrears or damages.

The law prohibits the sub-leasing of the unit without the consent of the unit owner. This, together with the failure to pay rent for three months and the owner’s need to repossess the property or make necessary repairs to make it more safe and habitable, are grounds for judicial ejection.

The renter, however, cannot be ejected on grounds that the unit has been sold or mortgaged to a third person.

The unit owner may engage the renter in a rent-to-own agreement, which will be exempt from coverage of the law.



source: Inquirer.net

Job Searching

A lot of companies around the world are now affected by the economic recession which started in the last quarter of 2008 in the United States. As a result, many employees were laid off from their jobs. Even in the Philippines, we have witnessed a lot of companies who have either retrenched employees, or totally closed business, samples of which are Fedex and Intel. Even BPOs, which boomed business in the past 2 years are also affected.

As expected, the country's unemployment rate has now increased to 27.9%, according to the latest SWS survey. In addition, we are expecting a swarm of jobseekers coming from the new graduates this April. And so many people are unsure if they have job opportunities waiting for them here in the Philippines.

Inquirer.net reports that many jobseekers are hunting jobs online via the government job website, www.phil-job.net. While the government assures that they are doing their best to address the unemployment issue, jobseekers should also initiate in helping themselves.

Other than the government job site, people can do job search via various job search engines, like Jobstreet and Jobsdb. Aside from the Internet, classified ads for jobs may also be seen on newspapers and broadsheets. Local governments and other companies also conduct job fairs.

In this time of economic and employment unrest, we need to keep in mind that having a positive attitude is very, very important. Let's clear our mind and take away the negative thoughts that hinder us from taking what's best for us.

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for some Job Hunting Tips, click here.