stories from the middle earth press room

hmmm...and i'd like to say hindi naman marami ang binayaran. there were a lot of middle class schmucks like me out there at the corner of ayala ave. and paseo de roxas. i was expecting only a "handful" that would be made up of binay's hakot crowd. but i was mistaken.

i covered an event in makati that morning and decided to stay in the area the whole day malay mo something exciting will happen. at almost 2 pm, people started marching down ayala avenue from all directions.





i was supposed to look for my mother (which was next to impossible) as she was texting me her location and asking me where i was. she went there with a friend and her friend's husband after finishing their business in UP diliman that morning. i don't know what gave her the idea that i could find her in that sea of humanity. (see first photo above) as if she had a homing device attached to her or something.

it was quite lonely out there. now i know how my older sister felt when she went to the rally at liwasang bonifacio (the november rally leading to edsa 2) in 2000 by her lonesome. she was desperately trying to look for us but i was giving her vague and stupid directions, ergo, she couldn't find us among the thousands who went there.

"asan ka na?" she called me on the cellphone.
"malapit sa malaking pulang banner sa harap ng post office," i shouted back to her on my cellphone.

there must have been hundreds of red banners in front of the central post office that day.

anyway, there i was infront of the enterprise building, all alone. i couldn't bring myself to chant because -- i don't know. i felt bad i wasn't with anyone there. Other Half was at EDSA shrine because he thought people would proceed there. all he encountered was a throng of soldiers. or police. i can't remember what he told me on the phone. (jos ko asawa ko di nakikinig sa reporter. sabi na ngang sa makati lang eh )

to keep me in a fighting mood, i bought a button pin that says "STOP THE EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS!" i pinned it on my shirt. my feet couldn't take it anymore (i've been on my feet since 8.30 that morning) so i decided to go home. poor me.

it's already 2 pm. i haven't written anything and i am not pretending. what's happening?

--

Other Half sent me this forwarded email which sums up the feelings of most pinoys in america. i guess this was written by someone who is tired of being a bank to his or her family members. or maybe he or she is just plain tired of vultures whenever the author comes home to the philippines. this is only a theory of mine. oh well, here goes the essay...

"Akala ng mga tao na nasa Pilipinas kapag nasa America ka akala nila madami ka ng pera. Ang totoo, madami kang utang, dahil credit card lahat ang gamit mo sa pagbili mo ng mga gamit mo. Kailangan mo gumamit ng credit card para magka-credit history ka, kase pag hindi ka umutang o wala kang utang, hindi ka pagkakatiwalaan ng mga kano . Pag wala kang credit card, ibig sabihin wala kang kapasidad magbayad.

Akala nila mayaman ka na kase may kotse ka na. Ang totoo, kapag hindi ka bumili ng kotse sa America maglalakad ka ng milya-milya sa ilalim ng init ng araw o kaya sa snow. Walang jeepney, tricycle o padyak sa America.

Akala nila masarap ang buhay dito sa America . Ang totoo, puro ka trabaho kase pag di ka nagtrabaho, wala kang pangbayad ng bills mo sa kotse, credit card, ilaw, tubig, insurance, bahay at iba pa. Hindi ka na pwedeng tumambay sa kapitbahay kase busy din sila maghanap buhay pangbayad ng bills nila.

Akala nila masaya ka kase nagpadala ka ng picture mo sa Disneyland, Seaworld, Six Flags, Universal Studios at iba pang attractions. Ang totoo, kailangan mo ngumiti kase nagbayad ka ng $70+ para makarating ka dun, kailangan mo na naman ang 10 hours na sweldo mong pinangbayad sa ticket.

Akala nila malaki na ang kinikita mo kase dolyar na sweldo mo. Ang totoo, malaki pagpinalit mo ng peso, pero dolyar din ang gastos mo sa America. Ibig sabihin ang dolyar mong kinita sa presyong dolyar mo din gagastusin. Ang P15.00 na sardinas sa Pilipinas $1.00 sa America, ang isang pakete ng sigarilyo sa pilipinas P40.00, sa America $ 6.50, ang upa mo sa bahay na P10,000 sa Pilipinas, sa America $1,000++.

Akala nila buhay milyonaryo ka na kase ang ganda ng bahay at kotse mo. Ang totoo milyon ang utang mo. Ang bago mong kotse 5 taon mong huhulugan. Ang bahay 30 taon mong huhulugan. Ibig sabihin, alipin ka ng bahay at kotse mo.

Madaming naghahangad na makarating sa America. Lalo na mga nurses at mga guro, mahirap maging normal na manggagawa sa Pilipinas. Madalas pagod ka sa trabaho. Pag dating ng sweldo mo, kulang pa sa pagkain mo. Pero ganun din sa ibang bansa katulad ng America. Hindi ibig sabihin dolyar na ang sweldo mo, yayaman ka na, kailangan mo ding magbanat ng buto para mabuhay ka sa ibang bansa.

Isang malaking sakripisyo ang pag alis mo sa bansang pinagsilangan at malungkot iwanan ang mga mahal mo sa buhay.Hindi pinupulot ang pera dito o pinipitas. Hindi ako naninira ng pangarap, gusto ko lang buksan ang bintana ng katotohanan."

I don't know whether to feel sorry for the author of this essay or what. Tama naman siya sa sinasabi nya kasi eh. akala ng maraming pinoy na pwedeng gatasan na lang nila basta-basta ang mga kaibigan at kamag-anak nila na nasa america.

eh sa totoo lang naman kaya kahit sinong pontio pilato magkakabahay sa amerika nun (before the subprime mortgage crisis and the recession) kasi maluwag ang pautang sa bansang yun. kahit walang equity sige, pwedeng utangin 100% cost ng bahay na bibilhin mo kahit questionable ang kapasidad mong bayaran ang utang na yun, kahit na for 30 years pa ang term loan. and that started the subprime mortgage crisis that escalated into a global credit crunch.

di alam din ng mga pinoy dito kasi na ang mga tao dun nabubuhay sa utang kasi andaling mangutang. dito kasi (until last year) banks and other lenders are tight when it comes to that. they've somehow increased their loans portfolio now but still they demand equity from home buyers or they make sure that you can affod to pay your amtortizations for your car loan.

they're just being careful, in contrast to the lenders (subprime lenders) in america as one business article said.

anyway, point is hindi pinupulot ang pera sa amerika. lalo ngayon na life is tougher now with the recession (or looming recession or economic slowdown -- still under debate).

 

it's friday and i'm alone here in the press room. it's cold and my insides are jumping around somewhere deep down in my gut. i fear there's something afoot and it would call for the postponement of my homecoming to the province after three weeks.

it always happens. glorietta blast, trillanes, etc. when my friends ask when am i coming home, i always reply "depende sa pangyayari sa pilipinas" and i am half-serious about that. it would be difficult to extricate myself from my hibernation in elbi if and when the office would call and say i have to go somewhere in connection with the recent events blah blah.

so back to the events, there are text messages circulating yesterday that by monday we would have a new president (who? gringo? noli? OMG!) and the airforce would withdraw their support for the gremlin-in-chief a.k.a. the lucky biatch (as salceda said).

it's surprising, Other Half is now chanting "GMA Resign!" BWAHAHAHAHA! he is now FINALLY convinced that GMA is "pure evil" (et tu Neri?)

as much as i want to join the protests and the many fora on the subject (and related subjects), the fact is i don't know if i can. as a journalist, can i exercise my freedom to express outrage or just keep my objectivity intact (if there's such a thing as 100% objectivity)? i'm not scared for my job (pwede ko na siya iwan, goodbye paper!) but i don't know if it would be good for me to show my political colors publicly. would that lessen my credibility as a journalist? i remember being taught in journalism school that journalists should inhibit themselves from reporting on causes close to their hearts.

but in this case i am not a political reporter, therefore, i should not keep myself from going to the rallies (if it would not keep me from doing my work, that is). a colleague from another paper said he would join one of those rallies (probably on monday since it's a holiday) and he doesn't care if the paper would care. hahaha.

...i miss my father the most.

i am writing my preliminary thesis proposal and i'm already halfway through my objectives of the study. but i'm already panicking because i still don't have any theoretical framework to show my adviser. when it comes to frameworks i'm lost. it was my father who did my theoretical framework for my undergraduate thesis 8 years ago. i was at a dead end and was already spending sleepless nights laboring over my proposal and first draft and yet i didn't have any framework to work with.

and now i am in the same situation but my father is not here with me anymore to help me with my thesis.

damn.

my highschool classmate (we are actually debating this in our highschool yahoogroups!) and nikita raised some valid points regarding lozada and the whole NBN senate hearing. lozada may be dubious at some points and they should should investigate him further and the veracity of the information he dishes out should be checked.

he's really not a saint and shouldn't be regarded as holier then thou but still look at the merits of what has transpired so far.

but here is my reply to my classmate's points:

actually (insert name of classmate) you have a point there. hindi naman mapupunta sa ZTE si lozada kung hindi rin naman siya madumi, as proven by the documents uneartened by miriam. inamin naman ni lozada eh.

if lozada is fake, then let the authorities deal with him. tingnan nila kung alin dun ang totoo o hinde. but the real point here is there is a US$300-million scam out there and somebody ought to explain something about it and it shouldn't push through. we ought to find out the truth.

the point here is that the NBN program isn't supposed to cost almost US$300 million and there are documents to prove that. that's the point of the whole inquisition, if you may have forgotten that already. ang masakit pa nito dapat build-operate- transfer lang siya na naging project loan na. people who worked for NEDA should know about the implications of BOT na naging loan. and i tell you the government cannot shoulder anymore foreign loans at this point that we're doing fiscal consolidation.

ang isa pang pinopoint out ni lozada is that most foreign loans (ODAs, we call it) are not granted on a needs basis but rather on the NEED OF THE SUPPLIER/CONTRACTOR to do business. we do not need NBN and yet we are going to shoulder almost US$300 million of debt for something that could not feed us. the department of finance has been adamant about this and i can't remember if it was teves or a usec who told us reporters that these kinds of loans should stop. just look at the NBN deal: the lender is the chinese gov't and the contractor is a chinese company with close ties with the chinese government.

in short, mangungutang tayo para kumita sila sa atin. pansinin nyo ang mga ODAs natin kung sino ang lender and contractor. kaya we still have at least P3 trillion of debt that we're trying to pay for year in and year out and we just refinance our debts or roll over our debts but still we're still digging a hole for our own shit where we could wallow in. ang principal and interest payments natin halos the same levels na. jos ko nakakdismaya ito isulat sa araw araw for a whole year na ginawa ng dyos but that's the reality. nakakasama ng loob.

kaya nga lalong nakakagalit na the first family is adding to our debts and ganito din pano tayo ninakawan ni marcos for 20 years.

sorry haba na. masyado na ako naging emosyonal.

---

what gets my goat? there are bigger projects out there that are overpriced/padded. one source told me that the highway interconnecting tarlac-subic-clark is one. the northrail is another. and that would add to more foreign debt.

yes, we may be reducing our COMMERCIAL foreign borrowings (for the peso's sake and to take advantage of the low interest rates) but we're still availing of the "official development assistance" extended by multilateral and bilateral lenders for things that we sometimes do not need. and the government doesn't have a cap for that. it's like having a credit card: once you start, you can't stop.

and due to our "good credit standing" they're extending the the credit lines. gaaaah.

i used to write about our national debts. for a year. sheesh.

i just watched iron chef america tonight with rachel ray and giada de laurentiis.

you raised an eyebrow, didn't you? well yes, these two are not really chefs but cooks that happened to have their own tv shows and you wonder what they're doing in a high adrenalin, if-you-can't-cook-you'll-die show?

well, they were mentored by iron chefs mario batali and bobby flay, who were also with them during the competition.

well, what do you know, rachel ray can cook. i thought she just cooked instant stuff. hehe. oh well, what do i know anyway? i just love to eat.

the show was interesting in a sense that these two popular cooks are really at awe with the chefs. as rachel ray put it, she was just a cook and not a chef, she kinda felt small (figuratively) compared with the likes of batali.

on the other hand, giada de laurentiis was still beautiful despite the heat and pressure of the kitchen. haha. so shallow of me. but it turned out she was no fluke when it comes to the live kitchen. looking at her resume, well it's no surprise. she trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and so on and so forth.

hmm...turns out the show (i think this is the episode) -- a special 90-minute Iron Chef America -- garnered the highest ratings the Food Network has ever received in the 18-35 demographic.

i'm a fan of cooking shows -- from the food science of alton brown to the "cute-funny" show of wolfgang puck. when i was a kid, my family and i watched wok with yan on RPN channel 9. when i chop onions, i often had stephen yan in my mind, especially when i try to chop the onions to bits using a butcher's knife. why i do that, i don't know.

so far my hits are more than my misses when it comes to cooking. but i don't enjoy it as much because it's too much work. i'd rather eat.

they're lying through their noses.

mejo malayo naman ang los banos sa pasig di ba? bakit ka pupunta dun para umiwas sa traffic? hahahaha.

at akala ko ba pinagbabawalang magtext si lozada nung nagtetettext siya? eh bat sabi nya kanina low bat siya? ano ba talaga, kuya? low bat ka ba at di ka makagamit ng cellphone mo o hinde?


--

Feb 10, 2008 Sun

I've been stuck here in some hotel room with nothing else to do but sleep and read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki until the sky breaks into another day of pounding the streets to do back-breaking work.

Anyway, most of Kiyosaki has written were already discussed in my crash-course “MBA” recently. The difference was that my professors were talking about corporations' balance sheets and income statements whereas Kiyosaki was talking about personal balance sheets and income statements. But basically what they were talking about is the same thing: building assets that would generate income and diminish liabilities. Simple enough but very hard to do and difficult to stick to.

What separates mediocre people and corporations from the good ones is the ability to spot an opportunity. In Kiyosaki's case, he was able to spot a $70,000-real estate that was sold for $20,000 and bought it only to be sold after a few hours for $60,000 – which the buyer thought was already a bargain. Imagine, he was able to make a handsome $40,000-profit in just a few hours with nothing but talk as investment. My professor in my crash course MBA also told a similar story only the item involved was a used car peddled by his car salesman cousin.

Other Half and I twice had opportunities that allowed us to make a lot of money from it...and it made a lot of difference that we had cash to grab the opportunity. By the time the opportunity lost its luster, we already made money from it and we can walk away. And now we're already into our second opportunity...

and I am struggling to keep my money plant alive (yey! It's almost 1 year old!) given to me by a Hong Kong Chinese businessman to give me luck.

It's mostly Other Half who sees the great opportunities because he is a risk-taker while I am a conservative business person who can take on the nitty-gritty aspects of the business – which my husband is loathe to immerse himself with (I sound like a bean counter). I can read income statements and balance sheets and do the reading/interpretation of the technical and fundamental stuff using my limited knowledge I acquired in my job while Other Half can give me the shove in making investment decisions.

Sounds perfect right? Not really. We violated every rule in Kiyosaki's book since the income we generated from our business was spent on luxuries like vacations and other stupid knick-knacks that I cannot trace where our money went. It is only now that we are shoring up our excess income into assets, not liabilities. The only investment I think that we did during all those years we were doing our buy and sell business was beefing up our computer set-up. I call that investment since it generates us income.

It also helps that my mother often lecture us about money matters so much so this statement always ring in my head: luxuries should not be bought with debt. For years I violated that also and it is only now that I get to pay off my credit card debts. One card is nearing “zero balance” and I am gonna cut the card in half within the next 2 or three months. Yey!

My parents were never debt-ridden except for the house under GSIS loan and I think my mother already paid it off fully last year. But they were such misers. on hindsight, it was a good thing they were not spenders so somehow their discipline may rub off on us.

What keeps me going is that Other Half and I know that we would never be financially secure if we continue to rely only on our day jobs – especially me who only receives a pittance of a salary. There has to be some other way.

Kiyosaki does not recommend leaving one's day job immediately. He was only able to leave his day job in Xerox when his business was already giving him more what he receives from his day job. And to think he was the number salesman at that time.

Oohh. I think I'll be with my day job for a quite a while. *sniff*

Gotta get out of this hotel room before I rot and type more nonsense into this blog. Gotta grab my supper. Tah tah.

PATALSIKIN NA YANG SI GLORIA.

pocha. assassinate na dapat yang corrput na FG na yan. isama na si abalos. aaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhh! i so pity lozada. i don't want to be in his position.

--

The University of the Philippines Law Student Government would like to express its support behind Rodolfo Lozada, Jr., as he continues to expose what he claims to be the truth behind the anomalous multi-million dollar NBN-ZTE deal.

Last January, Lozada was referred to by Sen. Cayetano as the new key witness in the Senate investigations of the NBN-ZTE Project. However, it was only on February 7, 2008 that he actually surfaced in public.

This, despite supposed death threats against him and his family. This, despite the risk of earning the ire of a lot of powerful officials. This, despite the risk of incriminating himself as having participated in the controversial project.

Indeed, his act of surfacing and speaking out may seem admirable—heroic, even. But this is just the beginning. For all we know, his complete testimony might lead not to answers, but to more questions. Still, his testimony is no less critical. The point is to make sure that he is allowed to freely recount his part of the story, and for us to decide for ourselves whether or not he is credible. If the government does not seem to be interested in resolving this controversy, it should not begrudge us the opportunity to do so.

And so we join the rest of the nation in its clamor for truth and justice. We will be watching and waiting, and hoping that Lozada does not lose the courage that he has so far shown.

i've always been a matipid person and since my first job i know how to budget my money. and my being very thrifty led me to have a nice wedding below P150,000 and my friends were really amazed at how i was able to do it in style at that budget. there were a lot of sacrifices esp. on my Other Half's part since we did the wedding in my hometown not in Manila where it is soooo expensive and being cheap naman in manila does not yield good results.

i've always saved so i would have something to tide me by when i become jobless. sabi nga ng nanay ko, for every P100 you earn, save at least a peso. As the chairman of one big financial corp said to me, set aside savings first and what is left is what you need to live and stick to it (avoid dipping your hands in the savings jar!).

The problem is people do it the other way around: they set aside expenditures first then what is left is for savings that's why the Philippines' savings level is so low. some don't even save at all. and the executive said, live with what you have.

he told us (i was with other colleagues) that he had P5,000 automatically deducted from his salary and had it deposited diretly to his mutual fund. after a FEW years, his monthly P5,000 grew to more than a million.

and there i was computing how liquid we were and i realized i almost bought a car (in my mind, at least) when i could have grown that money. naisip ko sayang ang oras dapat ginawa ko na to dati po. and in a few years' time (if i keep at our investments) then we may be able to buy our own home.

today i made the biggest step to financial maturity: i just opened an account to invest our money somewhere and hopefully make money in the short term or the long term. and on sunday i'll also stash away a huge sum of money (huge for me -- huhuhu ) in another investment and i won't probably see it in the next 5 to 10 years. hopefully it would have grown by then.

no it's not in some stupid pyramiding or ponzi scam. i'm too smart for that and not greedy to be duped into that. there are so many avenues where you can park your money: mutual funds, UITFs, preneed plans (uh...there are good plans there, don't worry. check the good companies), stock market, etc.

just don't go for the get rich quick scams. the rule of thumb is, as the SEC told us, if the interest rates are too good to be true (like promising you 30-40% yields MONTHLY when 91-day benchmark rates are at 3% -- aba mag-isip ka na. Stock market nga eh yung blue chips are giving you only 5% returns on the average (on a bad market like now)...look at where the funds or your investment vehicle is putting your money. baka naman yung interest na ibinabayad nila sa yo eh galing din sa deposito ng ibang clients, YARI ka !

point is do your homework. and my job is to do the homework for other people. hay.

...11) watching sessions in congress at times is entertaining. that has been my father's number one form of entertainment when he was still alive. (but now this item is meant to be sarcastic, unlike my previous entry -- see below)

i am writing this now after JDV delivered his privilege speech before the house of representatives. i never imagined that there will come a day that i would be listening to JDV. when he was in our office a year ago, i barely listened to what he said. this was a trapo speaking, i told myself. besides i didn't have anything to write about what he was saying so i didn't put enough effort, tralalala. besides, that was the morning before JDV railroaded the charter change or the con ass thing (can't remember na talaga), ergo, i didn't have the patience to endure his ramblings. this is short of saying that i don't have any love for JDV.

nothing has changed, he's still a trapo BUT now he's on the other side of the malacanang fence. he even singled out enrique razon, whom romulo neri has been complaining about everytime he delivers his lecture about "regulatory capture" and the like when he was still NEDA secretary. i had this sneaking suspicion that it was razon who made consortium led by san miguel and the consortium led by metro pacific to have a series of word war, which eventually led manny pangilinan's camp to back out of the transco bidding. razon's camp won the right to run the national power grid. among other things. JDV is right in saying that razon -- which is very close to malacanang -- is the most powerful man in the business and political arena today.

anyway, i was waiting for JDV to continue his revelations. this was a man forced back into a corner and now he's ready to spew the evil stench of malacanang whom he supported so dearly during the years GMA ruled. until now. many impeachment complaints were blocked, thanks to JDV. for the people in the know, what he said about "i have invested (in GMA) more than anyone of you here" (or something to that effect) they know this is so true.

and the clincher here is that JDV finally spoke about how he knew there was cheating during the 2004 polls. a seasoned politician that he is, he is trying to rally all people behind him by enjoining the left and the right in subtle ways during his speech through his calls to end the summary killings of activists. i wished he just continued his speech and hang more dirty laundry. but the laundry he aired was not dirty enough.

hopefully, this would snowball into something bigger.

someone in the know told me that nograles is no better than JDV. or even worse.

where would this lead? i hope something would happen. the ZTE issue hasn't progressed much. sana natuluyan na talaga si FG (ang sama ko) para minus one na sa mga corrupt dito.

i haven't written much about politics ever since i got this job since i didn't want to add stress to my already stressful life. i have always talked about mundane things to get away from the stress. besides i eat and breathe news day in and day out so i'd rather not talk about it.

but now i can't help it. because i know something bigger is about to come. or i may be wrong -- wishful thinking. abangan ang susunod na kabanata.

---

now on lighter side of things, i would just like to gloat about my asus eee pc. hehe.

i saw this in megamall last week:


the laptop on the top right side is a fujistu UMPC/micro laptop almost the same size as my asus eee pc. but then, look at the price...


it's P88,800 -- the price you have to pay for portability and power. i only paid a fraction of that for portability. my asus may not be powerful and does not have enough storage like that fujitsu but i am extremely pleased with what it can offer me in terms of portability and convenience at a fraction of the cost of high-end micro laptops.

i was about to inquire about the accessories for asus eee pc (extra batteries, retractable mouse) at asus in megamall when another customer asked the people there WHEN the new stocks would arrive. hehehe. no point in asking them about the accessories when the unit itself is still out of stock.