These things are getting buried because the oligarchs are afraid of upstart competition. The unknown scares them. They'd rather manage what's known for their own best interests.
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These things are getting buried because the oligarchs are afraid of upstart competition. The unknown scares them. They'd rather manage what's known for their own best interests.
[QUOTE=FreebieFan;1696171]Been there and gone through their inefficiencies. The airline run by children.
My only solution once or twice previously was to wait till I got to Manila then booked a flight on CP using one of the small travel agent counters in a mall and paying cash. Had a ticket in 3 minutes both times especially as I knew the flight number etc.[/QUOTE]"Airline run by children (who don't know we are children)" should be their motto. Unfortunately, I cannot travel they way you do (approaching a CP ticketing office once in-country); my itinerary (s) must be complete (including hotels) before departing my home country.
[QUOTE=Dg8787;1696145]Not sure if this will help you. But over a year ago I had the same problems with CP using overseas CC. I joined as a member and have my CC on file. Since then I have not had a problem with them. I automaticly hit CC on file.
Sometimes my Chase CC will not allow the charge to go thru unless I notify them that I will be out of the country in Philippines.[/QUOTE]The CC problem that I encountered is not the same, DG. I too have faced in the past a CC denial. Those denials came from my bank (security precaution to protect the customer), not from CP. The trick is to contact the bank before making the purchase on CP, which I had already done. The rub came from CP refusing (on the phone only) to accept out-of-phils CC.
[QUOTE=Avoloz;1696197]Had some issues on their website last week. Not as bad though as I had with Cathay Pacific.
A day later I was able to book everything online AND pay by overseas see / see.
I guess the trick was that I registered last year or so as a 'member' and now I just log in before I select the flights with all the subsequent details.
Good luck.[/QUOTE]The website is up / running today. I can pay with my american CC.
The further rub comes as follows (prequel to the original story). I purchased and paid for a domestic CP flight a few weeks ago, using my american CC. A few days ago I cancelled the flight on the website. There was a 'credit' of several thousand pesos, placed into a "Fund" for me. Upon trying to book a new flight on the website a few days ago, I did not get the 'credit'. Once on the phone yesterday with the CP agent, she explained that the credit is only usable by walking into their 'organic' office, or by calling reservations, but not online. Hence, I had her reserve the new ticket on the phone, which took 20+ minutes, only to be told that they would not accept my non-phils CC. At the start of the phone call, I introduced myself with: "Hi this is Xxxxxx, greetings from the United States of America, its a beautiful evening here". There could be little doubt that the agent didn't know where I was calling from. When I asked to reserve a flight, she could have mentioned right then that I could not use my american CC. Company run by children: she hung up when I asked to speak to her supervisor.
[QUOTE=Mogwai;1696257]You can try it with another browser. It looks like you are using Internet Explorer. I have switched to Opera because IE gave me way too much problems, in particular the latest version IE11.
It's bullshit that they don't accept credit cards from outside Philippines. I never had problems with my mastercard issued in Holland.[/QUOTE]I tried both IE and Firefox.
[QUOTE=Slippery;1696443]These things are getting buried because the oligarchs are afraid of upstart competition. The unknown scares them. They'd rather manage what's known for their own best interests.[/QUOTE]Maybe my prior post wasn't clear. It was a group of oligarchs who proposed the airport and subway projects only to see them buried by the government. So clearly the oligarchs, who are not stupid people, saw the construction of the new infrastructure as being in their best interests.
GE.
Sounds weird. But my GF has this weird fear that she is just my hidden secret. Which is not true. I have asked her to come to US many times so that I can introduce. But to alley her fear in time-being, I want to have someone here who I can say is my friend and can meet up with my GF. I'll treat with drinks and indeed will appreciate him for his time and you can earn a reliable friend. I am staying in Makati this week. I'll appreciate if you are free for sometime today or tomorrow, as I am here for this week only. Please PM me.
Thanks
[QUOTE=GoodEnough;1696431]Given that ASEAN economic integration is going to become a reality on the last day of 2015, and given thAT this country is woefully unprepared to compete
GE.[/QUOTE]As a Filipino, I hope ASEAN integration comes swinging hard to the country. The status quo is impeding the potential of the country and its people. I currently see two consequences with integration:
1. Lots of people will lose their jobs, especially in manufacturing. Its hard to beat cheaper labor in Vietnam and Thailand.
2. The oligarchs will balk at integration and force the politicos to do something about it.
-If there is any bidding for a large project, they will rig it. (Which is SOP by the way).
-The government will not comply with arbitration proceedings that does not favor them (MWSS vs Maynilad).
-The regulatory bodies would impose onerous rules for foreign players.
I think it is plausible for the country get kicked out of the ASEAN integration zone if it continues in being hard headed (makulit). I advise any long-term visiting or residing foreigner to hedge and have contingency plans when crap hits the fan. The specter of chaos because of integration is not far-fetched.
At the end of the day, we will just keep exporting more people.
[QUOTE=GoodEnough;1696431] In practice however, I'm not sure that the causal link is so strong. I say this because several months ago, San Miguel, a charter member of the oligarch club, proposed to build a new airport that it would finance. The company submitted a proposal to the government, complete with a proposed location and, I believe, a preliminary design. The proposal has disappeared into the abyss of government incompetence, to allow the former adequate time to "study" the proposal. In similar fashion, at least two consortia of large private sector interests proposed, about three years ago, to build a subway system and submitted preliminary designs and financing proposals: again, these proposals sank without a trace. I cannot explain why, if the control of the oligarchs is so absolute, both of these attempts to improve and construct much needed infrastructure would be dismissed.
GE.[/QUOTE]Perhaps the oligarchs are not a united front. And perhaps they feud. An example. LRT 1 was supposed to have been completed all the way to North Avenue and EDSA by some time in 2012. Various sources suggested that the Sy family had promised to underwrite a new station in front of SM North EDSA, and the station was to serve both LRT 1 and the MRT. In fact, plans called for a multi-level station that would also be the terminus for a new line going out North Avenue and Commonwealth to Fairview, and eventually to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan Province. Another new line was projected to go from the same station in to either the Recto Station of LRT 2 or Doroteo Jose station on LRT 1, thus connecting the North Avenue and EDSA intersection with Quiapo. But the LRT 1 line has never progressed beyond Roosevelt. The rails are all in from Roosevelt to the MRT terminus at Trinoma Mall, but the tracks are used only to turn trains around after dropping off passengers at Roosevelt.
What happened, according to sources I have talked to, is that the Ayalas, who own Trinoma, put up some resources to help extend LRT 1 at the Baclaran end (in Pasay) in exchange for a concession from somebody that the new North Avenue / EDSA station would remain at Trinoma. Having found this out, the Sy Family took the whole crowd to court, and the new station--whether at SM North or Trinoma--is stalemated from the Ayala-Sy feud.
So one possible interpretation of government inaction is that a power vacuum exists in government, since government operatives anticipate, or may sometimes even receive contradictory signals (read "marching orders") from different familial power brokers.
So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it: a governmental power vacuum that results from shifting power-balancing struggles among the oligarchs.
[QUOTE=SkipKost;1696533]Perhaps the oligarchs are not a united front. And perhaps they feud.
So one possible interpretation of government inaction is that a power vacuum exists in government, since government operatives anticipate, or may sometimes even receive contradictory signals (read "marching orders") from different familial power brokers.
So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it: a governmental power vacuum that results from shifting power-balancing struggles among the oligarchs.[/QUOTE]I agree that your's is the most viable explanation, and in fact the feud over LRT stations has been recounted often in the national press. It also seems likely that various political factions are allied with / controlled by different oligarchical groups which would explain the almost total lack of national progress on much of any front. What continues to amaze me however, even after a long time in country is that there's no transcendent vision that would benefit the entire sorry place including the oligarchs. Look for example at Thailand which, despite decades of "red" and "yellow" warfare had nonetheless managed to transform the infrastructure of its most important city, card in so doing benefit the entire economy. The same is true, albeit in a slightly different context in Malaysia. The Philippines continues to attract less DFI than any other country in ASEAN except Brunei, so foreign investors too must know something.
A few days ago, Cielto Habito, arguably the most well known Economist in the country, a former NEDA Director (or Depty Director) published a judiciously scathing column in the "Inquirer" lamenting the fact that national economic policies are designed to benefit a select few to the detriment of the many, similar I guess to the so-called economic policies of the Republican Party in the US. Habito's conclusion was that such I'll-informed policies undermine the country's likelihood of benefitting from ASEAN economic integration.
GE.
We have heard many stories about the handful of rich families wanting to make more money and bigger deals. Has anyone heard of just one story where they have helped or donated some relief goods or money for any calamity victims?
[QUOTE=Dg8787;1696619]We have heard many stories about the handful of rich families wanting to make more money and bigger deals. Has anyone heard of just one story where they have helped or donated some relief goods or money for any calamity victims?[/QUOTE]Well if they do they emblazon the aid with their names. I was speaking with a Red Cross guy at Cebu airport after one disaster and he bemoaned the fact that politicians from well known families wanted to unbundle the aid and rebrand it if they gave it to the victims. Swiss guy could not get his around this at all. I think the RC pulled out of that area.
Binay the VP gave cash to the families of the SAF victims but has been roundly hammered by 'netziens' saying he just gave cash that he allegedly plundered so was out from the pocket of that person etc.
The Swiss guy said there was no hope for the country where politicians tried to make personal gain from tragedies.
Lastly a friend of mine who lost most of her house etc in the Yolanda tragedy is still waiting for some form of government assistance. She needs help and no one will provide the basic grants to rebuild her house she said so she worked hard to do it bit by bit. Now I have now way to check this but it would not surprise me given what I read in the press and what friends tell me.
[QUOTE=WickedRoger;1696620]Well if they do they emblazon the aid with their names. I was speaking with a Red Cross guy at Cebu airport after one disaster and he bemoaned the fact that politicians from well known families wanted to unbundle the aid and rebrand it if they gave it to the victims. Swiss guy could not get his around this at all. I think the RC pulled out of that area.
Binay the VP gave cash to the families of the SAF victims but has been roundly hammered by 'netziens' saying he just gave cash that he allegedly plundered so was out from the pocket of that person etc.
The Swiss guy said there was no hope for the country where politicians tried to make personal gain from tragedies.
Lastly a friend of mine who lost most of her house etc in the Yolanda tragedy is still waiting for some form of government assistance. She needs help and no one will provide the basic grants to rebuild her house she said so she worked hard to do it bit by bit. Now I have now way to check this but it would not surprise me given what I read in the press and what friends tell me.[/QUOTE]The Head of Red Cross in PH has had his little stunts too. Though it didn't go too far. And comparatively he is considered clean. And probably is busy fending off allegations than doing something good as the head!
[QUOTE=WickedRoger;1696620]Well if they do they emblazon the aid with their names. I was speaking with a Red Cross guy at Cebu airport after one disaster and he bemoaned the fact that politicians from well known families wanted to unbundle the aid and rebrand it if they gave it to the victims. Swiss guy could not get his around this at all. I think the RC pulled out of that area.
The Swiss guy said there was no hope for the country where politicians tried to make personal gain from tragedies.
Lastly a friend of mine who lost most of her house etc in the Yolanda tragedy is still waiting for some form of government assistance. She needs help and no one will provide the basic grants to rebuild her house she said so she worked hard to do it bit by bit. Now I have now way to check this but it would not surprise me given what I read in the press and what friends tell me.[/QUOTE]Sorry to leave most of WR's post intact in my reply, but he has several points here, and all deserve attention. Emblazoning aid with names is not unique to the Philippines, although perhaps individual political leaders do it more extensively here. Binay, for example, got caught repacking relief materials intended for Bohol earthquake victims into plastic bags that bore his name. But, of course, Western donors also emblazon their names on aid packages. Tacloban is ablaze with Blue plastic tarps emblazoned with "Samaritan's Purse. " Samaritan's Purse is Franklin Graham's missionary outreach. Sure, a blue tarpaulin often provides some modest immediate relief from rain, but a quick look at their website gives a pretty good sense that Samaritan's Purse is concerned mostly with saving souls for Christ. And USAID passes out little aid that doesn't have their acronym printed in bold. Ironically, in areas where the United States is least popular, as in Northwest Pakistan, local NGOs end up spray painting over the "USAID. ".
Exploitation of disasters is hardly unique to the Philippines and involves not just politicians. Refer your Swiss friend to Naomi Klein's **Shock Therapy** for various examples from the Indian Ocean to post-Katrina New Orleans. Michael Lewis coined the term "Disaster Industrial Complex" to refer to all the activities of corporations, media, government, and NGOs to capitalize on the media viewers' extreme reaction of horror to the immediate traumatic scene from disasters. Until I saw Lewis' label I had always referred to it as the Anderson Cooper effect: fly into Tacloban in chartered helicopters that are desperately needed for disaster response (when most victims would have been happy just to get a jeepney out), walk around posing in videos in front of scores of dead bodies, catch a quick interview with Arnel Pineda at NAIA (Of course, Arnel is an expert on these things, and besides, Manny wasn't available), and then jet out to your next gig wrestling with crocodiles, swimming with sharks, or perhaps having sex with wild chimps.
Yes, lots of questions about where all the foreign disaster relief money went. The untold story is that most disaster recovery in developing countries occurs from the initiative of the victims. I heard secondhand in Tacloban the common line about "just get us a hammer and some nails and we will scrounge the other things we need to rebuild and do the work ourselves. ".
Wow. Really wow.
So you compare the donor (USAID) emblazoning the aid they sent, to a local politician grabbing the aid from that donor and repackaging it.
Amazing. Your sense of morality is truly amazing. Are you an Investment Wanker or a Consultant by any chance?
[QUOTE=SkipKost;1696682]Sorry to leave most of WR's post intact in my reply, but he has several points here, and all deserve attention. Emblazoning aid with names is not unique to the Philippines, although perhaps individual political leaders do it more extensively here. Binay, for example, got caught repacking relief materials intended for Bohol earthquake victims into plastic bags that bore his name. But, of course, Western donors also emblazon their names on aid packages. Tacloban is ablaze with Blue plastic tarps emblazoned with "Samaritan's Purse. " Samaritan's Purse is Franklin Graham's missionary outreach. Sure, a blue tarpaulin often provides some modest immediate relief from rain, but a quick look at their website gives a pretty good sense that Samaritan's Purse is concerned mostly with saving souls for Christ. And USAID passes out little aid that doesn't have their acronym printed in bold. Ironically, in areas where the United States is least popular, as in Northwest Pakistan, local NGOs end up spray painting over the "USAID. ".
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Cons68;1696692]Wow. Really wow.
So you compare the donor (USAID) emblazoning the aid they sent, to a local politician grabbing the aid from that donor and repackaging it.
Amazing. Your sense of morality is truly amazing. Are you an Investment Wanker or a Consultant by any chance?[/QUOTE]Cons,
I see your gentle and humourous approach is evident again.
Skip. There is nothing wrong to emblazon aid from the donor itself. For me, and I think others, the blatant politicizing of aid by local politicians (Binay in Bohol is one) is disgraceful. While it may happen the world over, I believe it is more endemic in this country and knowing people from Tacloban and the surrounding areas who still need assistance to rebuild a house that the government promised it would pay for is another example of what GE points as the hopelessness of government to do anything to help anyone apart from themselves and family members.
I was in Bohol recently and saw the damage that has et to be rebuilt etc as there is no cash to help despite aid being received. So the Swiss guy was speaking from his first hand knowledge of helping at various disasters over the world, and am sure he has seen it all but felt the Philippines was the worse case he had seen.
Others may differ and that is cool.
And no one will ever give scorecard as to where all the Yolanda aid went as it would likely mean banks breaking client secrecy to reveal the deposits LOL.
For many, if not for most large bilateral donors, aid is viewed as a concrete expression of foreign policy. While motivations may be largely philanthropic, they are also made with a view toward pragmatism; that is toward influencing policies within the host countries. For the US, the Philippines is seen as a strategic ally in the "war on terror," and the US finds the stationing of troops here advantageous. The US is also a huge donor to the country, primarily through USAID, whose physical donations (schools, market centers, bridges, roads) are always prominently marked with signs indicating that the infrastructure is "a gift from the American people. " The same is true of much of the infrastructure provided by Australian Aid (DFAD), which is another huge donor to the country. I find nothing wrong with this and don't find it remotely comparable to the "repackaging" undertaken by sleazy politicians wanting to maximize their own political capital through the use of donations provided by others. In my view, bilateral donors have the right to "label" their donations and the signs likely play well back home. Such packaging is also an effective means perhaps, of reminding ordinary citizens that their local politicians had nothing to do with the provision of the infrastructure.
It's true that the Nordic countries--which are not big donors here--tend to be more strictly philanthropic in their donations and tend not to label much. Then again, those donors don't provide much I the way of infrastructure. Likewise, projects funded by the ADB and the World Bank--most of which are based on loans that the country must repay over 20 or 25 years--don't utilize labeling much, which is appropriate since the aid flowing from those programs are from loan funds and are thus not donations.
For anyone who lives here, and appreciates the basic (inherent) dignity of Filipinos, it's continually depressing to witness--on a day-to-day basis--the total indifference of the national government to improving the lives of the citizenry or to providing much of anything except empty rhetoric in the case of natural calamities. For years, I've tried to understand the root causes of governmental indifference and incompetence and to date I've failed utterly to identify its etiology. Filipino social scientists don't seem to understand it either, though dozens have commented quite publicly on its existence. The transcendent indifference is particularly poignant in light of an "Inquirer" article today, which cites government statistics to show that the incidence of poverty in the Visayan regions most affected by Typhoon Yolanda has grown significantly since the disaster, and is now in excess of fifty percent.
GE.
I can remember a few years ago after the earthquake in Haiti that I would watch the news intently during the recovery stage. I had made a donation to a Christian NGO and it was nice to see their logo on their relief boxes, at least I knew where the money was going. I was wondering did they have to emblazon the whole box or bag of rice with their logo and name? Later on a friend of mine came back from a missions trip there and explained to me the need to emblazon their name on everything. Relief supplies would get stolen or hijacked and then resold. If the printed name or logo was small then the thieves would just slap a new label over it and sell it. With names emblazon on it the thieves would have to repackage it. Of course this only slowed them down a bit.
About a year ago some restaurant, I believe in Manila was caught with a ton of rice in 50 kilo bags emblazon with the NGO name on them. The owner claimed she had no idea the rice was stolen! She bought if at half the market price. If I remember the story correctly, she was turned in by a passerbyer who saw the NGO name on the rice bags.