Who benefit from lower tax rates?

See my post here.

Hiking through the SRP

I have been planning for a long time to hike through the South Road Properties. I finally did it with Dodon on March 30, 2014, Sunday, starting at about 4:30 PM.

 We started here. The skyline of downtown Cebu City is visible in the back.

To our right, across the road, is the SM construction. 

Looking towards former Kawit Island.

 Another view of Cebu City skyline from Kawit Island.

 Can we call this the pissing fountain?

The Lantaw restaurant at SRP.

 The guard is telling us that we were

 not supposed to be walking through SRP.

This is now the Talisay side.

Year-end spoiler: Mt. Bihonan of Talisay

Spoiling our rest these holidays has been the constant spewing of acrid smoke from a noodle factory in our neighborhood.

The smoke leaves black soot on the window screens which have to be scrubbed hard with soap and water else no air could get inside during those times when you can open your windows which has been rare this past months.

Best laid plans

Haven't posted here for quite some time because I was busy with my other blog (see here).

But I need to record this.

Beginning of October the family planned to go on vacation. The last one together was years ago.

We decided on a 2-day fling in Panglao, Bohol as the most affordable and convenient for our office and class schedules. Honi will be on sem break from her last year at Don Bosco. Mamay has filed a leave from her audit work. Dodon is out of school (hopefully temporarily) and Nanay is long overdue for a break.

Mamay made reservations with Lost Horizon. We made a down payment of 1K. Our vacation would be October 30 to November 1. I made arrangements with my manager so that she would not go on official trips on those days. Mamay filed a week-long leave.

We mapped out the tours to make the best use of our time. Feeding our dog, Dingky, would have to be arranged with Nanay's sister who is a neighbor.

Then while we were still preparing for breakfast during the Muslim holiday of October 15, the bowels of the earth sent a big tremor upwards on the island of Bohol disfiguring the tour sites we were supposed to see and leaving suffering in much part of the island.

What to do with the leave of absence we had already filed? We decided to go to Camotes instead and made the necessary plans. We picked Bano Beach resort and got in touch with management. Payment of reservation was done through kwarta padala of Lhuillier. Another non-refundable 1K.

All bags were packed in the evening of October 29. By 8AM of October 30 we alighted from a Ceres bus near the Port of Danao only to find a long line of passengers with nowhere to go. The first trip of the vessel turned back when the port on Camotes was already in sight. The waves were too big. All trips on that day were cancelled.

But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!

                - Robert Burns, 1785

-Robert Burns, 1785 

115th Independence Day?

It should be July 4, some say, because on June 12 some 115 years ago we were really not yet independent.

My take: it is from the day the last American military force pulled out from the Philippines some 20 years ago. Here's a good piece that I can recommend.

I remember Pres. Cory marching to the Senate on a rainy day just to ask the Philippine Senate not to end the  treaty which allowed US military forces on Philippine soil. It was one of the grand moments of the Senate, I must say.

I also remember Richard Gordon, many others, but mostly Gordon,  ranting and warning about the end of the Philippines with the departure of the Americans. No such thing happened. In fact Gordon and his volunteers kept Subic floating. Gordon was wrong on that account but he and his volunteers also proved that we do not have to rely on others to prop us up. I salute Gordon and his volunteers for that.

Altho the Americans gave us "independence", it came with many pre-conditions. See this article in Wikipedia for the many "strings attached".

So, we have only been independent for 20 years yet. We have done a lot in those years. We can do more in the next. Looking forward to it.

Until then let's sing the Philippine National Anthem:

Ipad stylus for sale

When my brod sent me an Ipad (the first generation) for my law study, I had him load it with Notetaker, NotesPlus, Noteshelf, etc. I thought I would be jotting down class notes. I scrambled for a stylus to use along with the notetaking apps.

I got the iStroke for around P1,500. But after a year or so of use it won't work anymore. And I found out that I rarely used them for notetaking in classes. Typing on a real keyboard was faster. The IPad became just a bookreader.

And styli from China now come in all sized  just cost P30 at CDRKing. Here they are side by side.

Living in the past: the North Borneo claim

There are a lot of discussions again about the Philippine claim over North Borneo. The latest resulted from the furor caused by a group of Tausogs, followers of Sultan Kiram, holing themselves up somewhere in North Borneo to press their claim of sovereignty, actually for rentals.

Prof. Solita Monsod in her column in the Philippine Inquirer said that the Sultanate of Sulu has historical rights over North Borneo because in 1685 the Sultan of Brunei awarded it to the Sultan of Sulu for helping him defeat Brunei rebels. Then she proceeded to criticize the way Spain ceded the Philippines to the USA without, in effect, asking the Filipinos.

If it was wrong for Spain to cede the Philippines to the U.S., without a by-your-leave,  was it not wrong for the Sultan of Brunei to cede North Borneo to the Sultan of Sulu. 

But these things was par for the course in the ancient past. Lands and territories were passed from one potentate to another to the detriment of the inhabitants. Land and people were treated like ranches and cattle. 

That was wrong and so were the subsequent acts arising from it such as the rental claimed by the Sultan of Sulu about which the recent furor is all about. 

This is the internet age; let's stop reliving the past.