It is now official! San Miguel Corp. (SMC) will buy the 27% stake of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) at MERALCO, price of which is PHP90.00 per share — payable in three years. This was confirmed based on Disclosure 7393-2008 (October 27, 2008) received by the Philippine Stock Exchange Commission.

Why did Winston Garcia and his cohorts, este co-directors suddenly changed their minds and sold their share to SMC? Does this verify the rumor that the GSIS is really bankrupt? Nagtatanong lang po!

PS: What happened to our complaint two years ago? Cover up! Cover up!

Popularity: 16% [?]

Almost a year ago, it was 10 Mar 2007 to be exact, my wife was maltreated and was a victim of oral defamation from no less than employees of the GSIS — “public servants” (please refer to my blog post at http://www.bobreyes.com/myblog/?p=338). A week after I emailed our complaint to different government agencies, including the Civil Service Commission, I finally got a reply from one of the GSIS’ Vice-Presidents (as noted on my post in http://www.bobreyes.com/myblog/?p=341 & http://www.bobreyes.com/myblog/?p=345).

Today, I made a follow-up email to the GSIS, CSC, OP, etc. I AM GIVING THEM UNTIL FRIDAY TO RESPOND. If I fail to receive a single email from any of the recipients, I WILL POST THE NAMES OF THE PEOPLE WE ARE COMPLAINING, as well as the EMAIL ADDRESSES to whom I had sent the complaint. Different civic groups in the USA are as well following this story, as they too have numerous complains about GSIS.

Talking about government inefficiencies. Sayang talaga ang tax!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Taken from http://www.gmanews.tv/story/66584/P750-minimum-fare-for-jeepneys-reinstated-starting-Nov-2

Commuters will have to cope with a higher minimum fare for passenger jeepneys when they return from their All Saints’ weekend vacation, after the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) reinstated the P7.50 minimum fare for jeepneys from the existing P7 minimum fare.

In an interview on dzRH radio, Thompson Lantion, LTFRB chairman, on Wednesday said the agency partially granted jeepney operators’ fare hike petition amid rising fuel prices.

Lantion said the fare hike will cover Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Southern Luzon.

“Ang P7.50 binabalik na natin ang minimum fare, November 2 na (Starting November 2, we are restoring the minimum fare for jeeps to P7.50),” Lantion said.

This is lower than the increase petitioned by jeepney operators, who wanted to hike jeepney fares to P8.50 – an increase by P1.50 – to cope with the rising fuel prices.

LTFRB earlier this month said the fare hike was “a done deal,” saying it is just waiting for the National Economic Development Authority’s (NEDA) approval of the reinstatement of the old minimum fare for jeepneys.

To recall, LTFRB granted earlier this year the reinstatement of the P7.50 minimum fare for jeepneys in Metro Manila and Regions III and IV and set the date for its implementation for July 2.

But before the hike could be implemented last July, Malacañang issued Memorandum Order 132 signed by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, deferring the implementation of the P7.50 fare, pending a closer study by the NEDA.

In the intervier, Lantion noted that there is no fare increase due yet for passenger buses.

On October 16, Metro Manila bus operators asked for a P2.50 hike in the minimum bus fare, to increase the minimum fare to P10.50 for ordinary buses, from the existing minimum fare of P8 for the first five kilometers.

Bus operators similarly cited the rising fuel prices as the justification for the proposed fare increase. - GMANews.TV

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On my way home, at around 2130H last night, 09 May 2007, bought some food items at 7-11 at the corner of Libertad & Burgos Sts. in Pasay City. Upon leaving 7-11, I noticed that there were two (02) uniformed police officers chatting to the sidewalk vendor. Didn’t care about them.

When I crossed the street, I noticed three (03) more policemen: one standing at the back of their vehicle, the other two inside the police car. What caught my attention was the mark on their vehicle: 1st PCAS (Police Center for Aviation Security). Sounds familiar!

Now, being a tax payer, I would just like to ask what the heck are these policemen doing in front of the Solutions Gay Bar that time of the evening? Don’t tell me that they have an operation, because that place is beyond five (05) kilometers from the airport, where they are supposed to be patrolling.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I always rely on ISAW (Internet Security And Warfare) when it comes to the juiciest news on the local internet and security (read as hacking/hacked) scene. Let me just share with you two articles that will make everybody aware on the importance of using a strong(er) password and what keyloggers are really all about. To quote:

“Thursday, March 29, 2007

Strong password; weak owner

And you thought that @#jbrem*+ is a safe password, but why do I have it? How about IlfIltIltGatGlm?, It looks safe but again why do I have it? These are two of the 30 passwords that I have collected when I went to an Internet Cafe in a big mall in Manila yesterday. Other passwords include “cutecute” “hanuka123″ “god” etc. The accounts of these passwords inlude corporate email, yahoo, gmail, buyandsell, jobstreet and more.

ISAW reported about the proliferation of keyloggers in almost all Internet cafes in Manila. I have experienced it first hand yesterday. By pressing CTRL + ALT and A, a password dialogue box will appear for administration, to my surprise the password of the Perfect Keylogger of that internet cafe is “password1″. I tried their other available computers and all have the same passwords.

How many Filipinos are using the internet cafes for sensitive transactions? If you are an Internet cafe user and have accessed your email and other applications that require a password then you are at risk.”

“Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Keyloggers in cafes sanctioned by the government

ISAW was informed that most of the keyloggers in Internet cafes are sanctioned by the governmet. An Internet cafe owner informed us that some personnel of a law enforcement agency has approaced him and talked to him about the possibility of putting keyloggers in all of his internet cafes. The trade-off is that they “will not be touched” with their use of pirated copies of some software.

“If you have heard of the arrest of a communist rebel in Mindanao, the information that resulted to that arrest was extracted from one of the PCs in one of my cafes.” The email sender claiming to be the owner of an Internet cafe in Sampaloc said that he agreed not because of the trade-off, since he is using licensed software, but because of the good that it would bring to the community.”

Stay safe online.

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Ten days after I had sent an email message, a complaint actually (please refer to my blog post on 10 Mar 2007), to several government agencies, I finally received a response!

It came from a Vice-President of the GSIS. I hope that their investigation may result on something. I will wait for a copy of the involved personnel’s written explanations.

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Are government agencies, especially their officers, reading their email messages? If so, then why I haven’t received any response yet? It has been four days already, and not a single read receipt nor acknowledgment was received from the GSIS, Ombudsman, and the Civil Service Commission.

Hey people, wake up!

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Would anyone know what’s the average response time of government agencies on email messages sent to them? I had done this before, and based on my experience, they will reply (or read, atleast) your messages after 72 hours.

It has been almost midday now, a Monday, and no response received yet from the many email addressees of my message sent (please see my previous blog post).

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I accompanied my pregnant wife in securing her GSIS eCard Plus this morning in Pasay City. There was this incident wherein these two GSIS employees (I am not naming them yet, as I had already emailed the Ombudsman & Civil Service Commission; I’ll wait for their replies and action first) would not believe that she was indeed three (03) months pregnant. That’s OK! But what made me mad was the comment of this guy, “Ikaw, three months na buntis? E ako nga, five months na e!”

A comment very disrespectful of women! Not fit for a civil servant.

Popularity: 8% [?]