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Tropical Storm Sendong (Washi) devastating photos, how to help

Calvin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:46:32 +0000

Tropical storm Sendong made landfall Friday night in Mindanao. Residents in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City did not expect it to be one of the worst storm cyclones to hit the country in a decade.

Philippine National Red Cross is already pegging the death toll at 900+ which is worst than Ondoy (464) a couple of years ago. Hundreds are still missing and waiting to be rescued while the cities are running low on potable water.

Things happened almost the same as Ondoy. It rained heavily on Friday evening and continued till Saturday morning catching sleeping people unaware, bringing more than a month’s worth of rainfall in just a day. This caused flash-flooding and landslides that washed away houses with families inside in dozens of coastal villages in CDO and Iligan.

Here are some photos of the aftermath of tropical storm Sendong and the relief operations that are underway. Rescuers are having a hard time already though since the bodies filled with muddy water are decomposing at a quick rate making the stench intolerable.

(Warning: Some photos have very graphic content)

I do not claim ownership of the photos. Credit goes to their respective owners but I hope they have moved you to help the rescuers and victims.

How to help CDO and Iligan

CASH

The easiest way to send cash to Philippine National Red Cross is via text message.

Send RED to 4143 (Smart) and RED to 2899 (Globe).

* Smart subscribers may send financial help to the Philippine Red Cross through text. To donate, cellphone users should send RED to 4143. Valid donation amounts are 10, 25, 50 and 100 and will be charged to the subscriber’s prepaid load or postpaid bill.

* Globe subscribers may send help to Red Cross. Just text RED and send to 2899. Valid donation amounts are 10, 25, 50, 100 (For ex, RED 10).

PNRC also worked with 7-11 so you can send in cash donations to the nearest 7-11 near you.

GOODS

Most LBC branches nationwide are also accepting donations such as clothes, food, water, medicines… anything you can spare. You can simply drop off the goods at any PAL and LBC office near you. Also, all Cebuana Lhullier pawnshop and remittance branches are also accepting.

________________________________

Dateline.ph has a comprehensive list on how to help the victims of Sendong. The list includes how to send donations via the foundations of major TV networks.

Thoughts on the proposed bill to change EDSA to Cory Aquino Ave.

Calvin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 02:37:21 +0000

Yesterday, news broke out that Bohol Rep. Rene Relampagos filed a bill that seeks to rename Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) to Cory Aquino in honor of the late president and the mother of the current president.

According to him:

“Indeed, one cannot think of the 1986 EDSA Revolution without thinking of Corazon C. Aquino. Even after her term as President of the Republic, she lived her life fighting for democracy, as she goes out of her way to fight for justice and truth, for peace and democracy.”

Was Cory even in EDSA during the EDSA Revolution? This is sooo…. insensitive to the Filipino people that I just had to let this one out here. What’s wrong with EDSA as a name? Seriously, I can’t think of anything nice to say about this bill. Why??? For what purpose? To kiss ass? There’s absolutely nothing Filipinos can gain here. Is this what we are paying this congressman for? Did he ran out of problems to solve?

Mr. Relampagos, why not change your name to Cory instead? Or you could create a huge parking lot there in Bohol and name it Cory Aquino or even Baby James for all we care.

Mr. President, shame on you if you’re even considering of entertaining this bill. If you have the decency in you, please give this Bohol Rep. a good bop at the back of his head (what’s batukan in English?) when you see him.

Anyway, I’m not alone in this sentiment as almost if not all Filipinos are opposed to this bill. Are you?

Why a good support on your web host is important

Calvin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:13:15 +0000

Most of you noticed that my site was down yesterday. I was close to getting kicked out of my hosting provider (WebHostingPad.com) because suddenly my site started eating up a lot of resources which affects other sites within the same server.

I got suspended and it was not the first time so the admin told me to look for another provider where they can transfer my site. I appealed, telling them that I already paid for 3 years in advance and my site was working very smoothly for a long time prior to this incident.

So what happened really? What was the problem with my site? That’s the thing. They didn’t give me any explanations and I couldn’t log in to my cPanel to investigate. After a few more e-mail exchanges, they told me that a plugin script is eating up the resources. I asked them if they could reactivate my site so I can uninstall the plugin. I didn’t get a reply so I submitted another ticket and they addressed the issue.

They deleted the plugin and now my site is back up. I don’t know if that’s the cause of the problem or if there are other sources. Who knows maybe I’ll get suspended again in a few days and there’s no way for me to troubleshoot my site. Since my hosting is cheap, I don’t think they will take the time to investigate for me either. I just hope we solved the problem already.

If your site is really important to you, don’t scrimp on cheap hosting like I did because if there will be a problem, you might have a hard time communicating with support… or worst, you won’t get any support. Read reviews with excellent support, preferably 24/7 and also offers Live Chat.

If you can’t afford those better hosting site, the only advise I could give you (which I should be following as well) is not to tweak your site a lot. Don’t put too much plugins and don’t update your plugins just for the sake of updating. I did a mass update on my plugins prior to the suspension so I guess that caused the problem. Or you could just stick to BlogSpot. Hehehe.

Damn you Prince Joffrey!

Calvin — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:33:58 +0000

This may as well be a late post but I just finished watching Season 1 of Game of Thrones. Blame it on the busy schedule so I did a mini-marathon yesterday to finish the series.

At the end of it all (episode 9 at least), we really hate Prince Joffrey. I think you would too if you’ve finished the show. The sad thing is, you can’t do anything about it until they finish filming Season 2, or go read the second book. So here’s something I found in YouTube that could help ease that hate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxLOXUGmRKI

Go Tyrion! You deserve to win the supporting actor at the Emmys for this hundred-hand slap to Prince Joffrey. Hahaha.

Here’s another video I found on YouTube of a girl’s reaction after watching that last scene of Episode 9. Don’t watch it if you don’t want to be spoiled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNIyzN9eDz0

I bet you had the same reaction too huh?

No related posts.

Modus operandi of camera hold-up gang in Antipolo

Calvin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:17:59 +0000

Saw this over at DPP forum and thought it would be of importance to you or your photographer friends out there.

There seems to be a holdup modus operandi going on that targets freelance photographers. What happens is a guy claiming to be an events coordinator will contact freelance photographers to cover an event or help in a shoot. Instead of texting the address of the event, the guy will be picking the photographers from a designated place around the Cogeo, Antipolo area. Then they will bring the photographers somewhere where other members of their group will meet them and proceed with the hold-up.

Here’s the actual incident from the forum:

Someone will call you at magpapanggap na client, Sa case nya eto name nung client IAN ADVINCULA – Gay, event coordinator and models handler. Im not sure if that was his real name. After the deal was closed, he will set the place and time where you will meet up.

In my friend case, sa may Antipolo ung meet up nila, models shoot sa resort Puting Bato. 3pm Sunday.

Bago sya dumating dun, Ian said na susunduin sila ng kotse, which later the guys just sent a trike para sumundo, because he’s busy daw preparing lights and MUA, etc. 1 trike driver and 1 passenger sa likod and 1 lady who said na sya ung katulong ni IAN.

Actually my friend was just a back up photog that day, so 2 sila photogs.. On their way, hinarang na sila ng 2 pang lalaki. Yung place na pinagdalhan sa kanila near SOLID CEMENT sa COGEO. At dun na sila HINOLDAP.

The name and event varies so be on vigilant. To be safe here are a few tips offered by the folks over at DPP when somebody you don’t know needs your services:

Be alert especially when the deal is too good to be true. Sometimes the guy would offer an all-expense paid trip to Boracay to cover a wedding.
Ask for credentials from your contact. A website perhaps, a Facebook page or a reference person.
If it’s only to meet and discuss the setup, you don’t have to bring your gear even if your client wants you to. Just show them your sample portfolio.
If you can, bring a car with you and don’t get out to jump into another vehicle.
It’s a good idea to have a record of your gear’s serial number just in case you lose it or it gets stolen.

There are already a lot of instances of this and some are near-miss cases. If you wish to read more about other style, go visit the DPP forum thread.

To my freelance photogs friends out there. Be careful!

Philippine residents with Taiwan passports beware

Calvin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 03:07:17 +0000

Do you live in the Philippines but use a Taiwan passport? Or know somebody who uses one? Well if you are then you might want to know that you need to get a re-entry permit whenever you travel abroad. Or you can just get a Philippine passport altogether.

So why am I posting about this? I have this blogger friend who recently went to Singapore only to be denied entry and had to be detained in a holding room at the airport for 24 hours before she was allowed to go back to the Philippines!

She was using a Taiwan passport. A passport that didn’t pose any problems when she traveled before until this incident.

When I arrived at the Immigration booth, the person was staring at my passport. He stood up and went to the Immigration Officer, went back and told me to proceed there at the Immigration Office. I thought they will just question me for a few minutes but never thought that as soon as I get to the booth, I got shouted with “We’ll deport you, go tell your friends to go ahead.” I showed him my I-Card from the Philippines and also showed the payment I made at the Philippine Immigration before arriving in Singapore. The guy said he doesn’t care about the Philippines I-card…

Read Rochelle’s full account of her harrowing experience being detained at Changi Airport in Singapore for 24 hours when she was already willing to go home and cancel her vacation.

Afterwards, share the link to your friends or relatives who might have a Taiwan passport to save them the trouble and unpleasant experience.

I don’t have the exact rulings for Philippine residents using Taiwan passports so if you can point me to the right direction I can post the link here as well to serve as information.

The other side of the DTI – Blogger permit issue

Calvin — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:16:47 +0000

Bloggers, you may have heard of the hotly contested debate that cropped up when somebody asked DTI if bloggers need to secure a permit in order to run a contest. According to DTI, if it’s a contest or a raffle to promote a site or a brand, you need to have a permit to run it.

Quite stupid? That’s what a lot of bloggers say about it. And I mean a LOT! On the body interfacing with DTI’s defense, they say who will protect the interests of the contest participants if things go awry?

I’m going to play devil’s advocate here by siding with DTI but it doesn’t exactly mean I support them on this issue alright?

First, who will protect those who joins the contest? That’s a load of crap IMHO. Show me numbers on how many times people complain about online contests hosted by blogs out there. If I have to estimate probably 2% and most are probably petty complains that people wouldn’t want to lose sleep over. This reasoning just won’t sell. If ever a contest goes bad, it’s the blog who will lose more anyway.

I checked out DTI’s website regarding Sales Promotion and the only main reason why agencies are required to secure a permit is to assure the fairness, truthfulness and transparency of the declaration of winners.

Given that blogger’s contests are typically simple and the mode of declaring winners is usually via a randomizer, how could DTI ensure fairness and transparency there? Will a DTI representative stand behind a blogger as he clicks the submit button on Random.org? All that trouble for a measly P500 spa gift certificate?

Another thing we can also look at what DTI can do here is to protect people from being scammed by online contests. Hmmm, I don’t think so. By the time people can complain, it’s already too late to track a scam site and what can DTI do? It should be common sense that people should be wary when they have to spend something or give away sensitive information when joining an online contest.

Bottomline here is, there’s no other side to this issue. I really tried looking at DTIs perspective on this one but blog giveaways and contests are very different in scope compared to beauty pageants, mall promos where they give cars and house and lots. It just won’t sell. This is plain extortion.

I’m just curious, does anybody know if radio programs secure a permit every time they give away premiere tickets?

NBI renewal cards are now worthless

Calvin — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 01:20:03 +0000

Before when I applied at my current job, I was high on my NBI renewal card because I didn’t have to suffer the long lines in renewal kiosks. I can simply go to a machine and get my renewed NBI Clearance all by myself.

I just found out that NBI stopped using the renewal cards this July in favor of the upcoming, more hi-tech Biometric Clearance System. I’m all for upgrading to modern technology to make things easier but here’s the thing, the biometric thingy is still not in place!! Yup, they removed a perfectly helpful system when the improved one is not yet ready.

In their defense, the contract with their service provider for the renewal cards, Mega Data Corp., has already expired. However, can’t they go for an extension? Extensions are generally discouraged in the government for support services but it’s not exactly forbidden.

Now people who are having their NBI clearance renewed in Metro Manila can only do so at the following clearance centers:

Robinsons Place Ermita (Basement 1); Robinsons Otis (Level 2); Robinsons Galleria (East Lane, Basement 1); Robinsons Metro East Pasig (Level 4); Robinsons Cainta (Level 2); Quezon City Hall; Mandaluyong City Hall; Marilao Municipal Hall; and Las Piñas City Hall.

And they had to do it the old way, fall in long lines. And get this, there seems to be a quota system in malls (at least in Robinsons Metro East and Galleria) wherein only the first 300 who were able to fall in line can be processed! There are reports saying that people are already falling in line as early as 4 AM just to get into that limited quota.

So take note if you’re planning on applying on a new job or need to get your NBI clearance renewed soon.

Way to go NBI! >:( My renewal card is now totally useless. But at least it will free up a card slot from my wallet.

[NBI]

We have the worst airport in Asia in 2010?!

Calvin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:24:52 +0000

Ouch. As a frequent traveler this kinda stings. Sad but yes, I’m not proud of our NAIA 1 (International Airport) terminal. It’s because of this terminal that our country was voted as the one with the worst airport in Asia in 2010 and 5th in the world.

Photo from SkyscraperCity.com

How did this came to be? Is there a legit organization that rates airport? This ranking came from SleepingInAirports.net, an airport review site that started in 1996 and is based from reviews made by travelers. Common complain people have with NAIA Terminal 1 is that the staff are unfriendly, the place is dirty, hard seats, chaotic, super strict security and corrupted officials. Ouch!

In second place is New Delhi followed by Beijing then Bombay. Top airports in Asia is in Singapore, Seoul Incheon and Hong Kong which were also the top three last year.

I know we have lots of corrupt officials in our land but hearing it from travelers who shouldn’t be exposed to such social deficiency is just sad. I read from this travel blogger buddy, JetPacker, late last year about a news banning NAIA officials from greeting people “Merry Christmas” because they don’t want visitors to think that they’re asking for a bribe. Whether it’s true or not, it’s just disheartening that we have such image in our airports.

If only our foreign visitors can take a look at NAIA 3 or our Centennial Airport where it’s more clean, spacious and full of comfortable chairs and amenities. Why can’t they just move international flights to the newer terminals? Manila International Airport Authority General Manager Jose Angel Honrado said that in the next few years, international flights will be moved to Terminal 3. The government had the mandate to operate Terminal 3 when it becomes fully operation in one and a half years.

Please make it happen quick Pres. Aquino. NAIA 1 is just an eyesore and it’s named after your father. To be fair to NAIA 1, the terminal has been undergoing some improvements. Currently on the plans is a new carpet and renovating the rest rooms. Meh.

Trivia: Did you know that you can check the arrival of flights from the Manila Airport website? Really useful if you’re fetching someone at the airport.

No more free baggage allowance from Cebu Pacific

Calvin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:18:49 +0000

Travelers take note. Cebu Pacific is now removing their free 15 kilos worth of check-in baggage on all of their flights. Yep! When you try to book a fare on their website, “Standard” fare is now replaced by “LITE” fare so all you’ll get for free is your carry-on baggage.

If you really need to check in a baggage, you’ll have to pay the corresponding fees… on both to and from trips. Here are the check-in baggage rates for Cebu Pacific:

up to 15 kg – Php150
up to 20 kg – Php250
up to 25 kg – Php400
up to 30kg – Php700

Here’s the funny thing. When you book your flight, you need to select the size of your check-in baggage. Uhh… my flight is still in 8 months and you want me to do a trial pack just to see how many kilos it would weigh before I can book online? Now try estimating that baggage weight for the whole family.

I think if you are planning to check-in a baggage, you can just select the smallest size when you book online and then pay the balance if it exceeds the weight once you actually check-in at the counter. What I’m afraid here is that they would charge you PER kilo that you exceeded when you’re already at the counter. Can anybody confirm.

Is Cebu Pacific losing money that they need to resort to charging for check-in baggages? If 15 kilos is too much why not just trim it down to 10 kilos? Arrghhh, what have you done Cebu Pacific? Are you alienating yourself from business travelers or from those who take long trips?