Category: Philippines

Posted on

erPost:Japanese companies turn Filipino workers into overseas leaders- Nikkei Asian Review

This is amazing. This is moving up the value chain by virtue of being world class learners and teachers in engineering disciplines.

MANILA — The Philippines has long provided the Western world with highly skilled and motivated workers, especially in such fields as nursing, domestic help and back-office services. Now, Japanese companies are tapping into the potential of Filipino engineers and technicians.
A growing number of Japanese manufacturers are setting up “mother factories” in the Philippines and dispatching Filipino engineers to work as leaders in other parts of the world. Mother factories are responsible for product design and for standardizing production specifications and conditions.
Philippine-based Tsuneishi Heavy Industries, a subsidiary of Tsuneishi Holdings in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, has been working to pass its expertise and skills on to Filipino workers. Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Chief Director Kenji Kawano said the aim is to develop THI into one of the world’s mother factories.
via Japanese companies turn Filipino workers into overseas leaders- Nikkei Asian Review.

Posted on

Gilas wins against Senegal

The Philippine National Basketball team Gilas Pilipinas finally wins our first game in the world championships since 1978 I think.
 
All he loses were close and probably winnable with better preparation.  Props to all the PBA owners who lent their players to the National team with the Caveat that they really should have just released the players instead of being assholes and playing another conference.
 
Laban Pilipinas Puso

Posted on

SC junks Comelec limits on airtime of political ads

This is how you do something when the GODS? of the black robes issue their commandments.  Find another way to do the same thing. What we have to control is not simply the spending of candidates but the superpac style funding of these candidates. What I mean is the “Paid for by the Friends of <INSERT CANDIDATE HERE>”. Although It is a given that people who believe in their candidates really do pay for some ads, this has just become another way of circumventing the spirit of the law because dummy corporation/dummy foundations/individual fronts are the norm in our country.  Although I believe that this really is freedom of speech there should be a mechanism that exposes these fronts that make a mockery of our election system. I am honestly still thinking how this can be done in a land where the interest of the rich and powerful trump moves that give life to our economy.

“With this new decision, the Supreme Court effectively obliterated a statutory mechanism to level the playing field by setting a cap on the quantity of media exposure candidates can buy,” the poll body said.
Comelec, however, claims it will no longer pursue a motion for reconsideration, and that it “vows to impose stricter campaign finance regulations – particularly on expense monitoring and documentary requirements – for the upcoming 2016 elections.”
via SC junks Comelec limits on airtime of political ads.

Posted on

Online freelance workers get support from Bam Aquino | ABS-CBN News

Aquino encouraged the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Science and Technology -ICT to craft an e-Commerce Roadmap that will help concerned stakeholders, especially in terms of Internet speed and access.
“The rate of Internet access has increased about 10 to 15 percent since 2010 as a whole. The more we increase our Internet usage and Internet penetration, we are looking at a space where we can generate employment,” the senator said.
Aquino also urged the Bureau of Internal Revenue and DTI to relax their registration rules and provide incentives to encourage online-based workers to get into the formal economy.
“Let’s not cast fear among the online freelancers, if we can get them into a nurturing environment, we can actually help their businesses grow. Once they grow, they will provide employment, provide for their families and it will go back to the economy anyway,” he said.
“Let’s review the Barangay Micro Business Enterprise Law or BMBE Law –which exempts a business owner from paying income tax as long as its assets are not higher than P3 million, and see how it can be applied to online freelancers.”
via Online freelance workers get support from Bam Aquino | ABS-CBN News.

Posted on

Patriots

I’ve had it with all these Activists who are just pushing for one Imperialist State over another.
These activists love to criticize American Imperialism while are astoundingly silent with american imperialism.
Well for me I say a Philippines for Filipinos. Not for China, not for the USA and even not for Japan.

Posted on

The Next Philippine President

I think I am a busy person but interacting with people such as my bosses leaves me to believe that I am not nearly as busy as I can be.
 
To combat all the down time that interacting in this world entails; Things like waiting for the 15-45 minutes that will take to cook your food or other stuff like waiting for a meeting or lunch date; I’ve devised thought experiment like games that try to think about either medium/hard solution, medium/long horizon , and or medium/hard cooperative problems.
 
One of these mental games I’ve played the past year is to envision the next Philippine President. To be more accurate who are the candidates that can better lead our country than our present presidential wannabees like Binay, Mar, Bong Bong and the like.
 
To answer this question entails answering some bounding questions. Some of which I will state next.

  • Winnability.
  • Personal/Organizational Network.
  • Integrity.

This is a short list and I actually have a much longer list in mind.
I am writing this down for posterity’s sake.
To state that I’ve been thinking about this for more than a year.
And it has been a very fun thought experiment.

Posted on

The problem with all the Haiyan outrage.

The problem with all the outrage is that the outraged people have never had to move hundreds of tons of goods hundreds of miles without the benefit of the pan philippine highway. This makes the outrage of slowness more of a gut reaction rather than an examination of the physical constraints that the men and women of the government/military have to deal with. As highlighted by Winnie Monsod. Did you really think you could have done better? If you did well you probably have a healthy self worth. What our nation needs to heal is a truth commission like post mortem for us to understand what we could have done better and what we did wrong. As an aside, Notice the lack of outrage from veterans of calamities far smaller than Haiyan. Mr Peque Gallaga/Mr Anderson do not forget the physical constraints. Mr President do not forget that sometimes people just need to know somebody is in charge.

Posted on

Making a Difference In Our Own Ways

 
A few years ago I would have been first in line in these drives to pack relief goods for disaster victims.
 
I have to take the practical route. Each overtime hour I log in work is around 400 pesos of donatable cash.
 
I’ve already donated 4000(practically 10 hours of my life earmarked for and iPod Touch) in various charities mostly the world food program since I’ve been donating to them consistently since I started working in 2008.
 
I just have to take the practical view.  To earn by doing overtime and donating is where my efforts are best spent.
 
A note to self when I get the urge to go do something physical to help our countrymen.

Posted on

GDP growth driven by corruption? | The Manila Times Online

The reason elections here are so expensive [“election spending always has a big impact on GDP”] is because many candidates buy votes in order to achieve a pork barrel “jackpot,” otherwise why would they be so expensive as to impact GDP? I wonder if the candidates do an economic evaluation of the likelihood and size of the return on the investment in vote buying against the reward of the pork barrel allocation and the other benefits that they get? It can be no wonder that people get shot, and why in a well ordered state would Ms. Naploes be in fear of her life for exposing corruption or 90 percent of the murders of the many Filipino journalists exposing corruption have complete impunity?
The Philippines is over-politicized to a paralyzing extent and political power and the money that goes with it is a much sought after prize, once obtained don’t let it go, hence the dynasties. Political motivation is all about grabbing money and power whatever it takes and not as it should be to selflessly serve the people. To do any form of economic development here requires political patronage and there are usually other politicians and oligarchs pulling in opposite directions because they want it for themselves, thus paralysis. Of course you might say the same about China and other places but the difference here is that there an oversupply of selfishness, there is no sanction on the abuse of power and worse there is not even an appreciation of the need for [or is it the capability to actually implement?] sanctions on such abuse.
The dependence of the Philippine economy on its domestic capital market and “hot money” [which adds nothing to development] is fast becoming absolute and that is a very bad thing indeed. Is it really the nature of Philippines political class to be the “most selfish and culpable in Asia” as I read recently in a new book on economics in the region? I think that would be a tag that the Philippines really would like to dispense with and to do that requires a drastic wholehearted overhaul of the political and economic system. Discretionary funds obviously have to go and a full range of politicians need to be appointed by votes that are not bought and who actually want to serve the people and not themselves. Only then will the Philippines be “open for business.” Oh, and we need a bit of effective anti-trust legislation that is made to work, an executive branch of government that is properly paid and works to implement the law even-handedly rather than spending its time discussing regulatory dots and commas, a proper social security system, an effective rule of law and lots more real decent jobs, and a few more bits and pieces. And this list is not to achieve perfection or some form of ideal society it is just in order to make the Philippines a place that once again appears on investors radar screens as a place where you really can “do business.” Perhaps it’s just too much to ask?
via GDP growth driven by corruption? | The Manila Times Online.

Posted on

Why Lacierda met Napoles in a cemetery and PNoy had to go to Crame | ABS-CBN News

LACIERDA AS BRIDGE
It was Lacierda who served as the bridge to Napoles’ surrender. Lacierda was once an associate in a law firm co-headed by Kapunan.
It was Wednesday noon when Lacierda first called up Kapunan upon seeing a news item on the ABS-CBN News Channel quoting Kapunan that her client is willing to surrender if her security could be ensured.
“So I said: ‘So what do you want? So you want to surrender?’ And she said at that point: “We would like to surrender. If at all, let me confirm with my client that we would like to surrender to the President.” Why the President? “Because [he’s] the person that we trust,’” Lacierda narrated to reporters.
Lacierda then informed the President of the developments who then instructed Secretary Mar Roxas and Chief PNP Director General Alan Purisima to make the necessary security preparations.
Lacierda boarded a vehicle escorted by security personnel to meet Kapunan in the agreed meeting place. Kapunan was with Janet’s husband, retired Marine major Jimmy Napoles.
“When they boarded, I asked them: ‘Where are we going?” And sinabi ni Mr. Jimmy Napoles… was: ‘Let’s go to Heritage Park,’” Lacierda said.
Lacierda was updating the President of the developments. The President was concerned about Lacierda’s safety.
“The President made sure to tell, instructed Secretary Mar Roxas, to provide this thing with escorts kasi nga PNP si… DILG si secretary Mar Roxas. So the President was concerned for my safety, so that’s why we had to inform the President, nasaan na ako,” Lacierda said.
Lacierda, however, had no clue that Heritage Park was a cemetery located in Taguig.
Asked if he felt any apprehension about his safety given the nature of the final meeting place, Lacierda said, “You know, the benefit of it was I didn’t know where that place was. Hindi ako taga-roon e. So sinabi ‘Heritage, punta tayong Heritage.’ Sabi ‘nung driver, alam niya, so hindi ko alam kung ano ‘yon e. So hindi ko pala alam sementeryo pala ‘yon.”
via Why Lacierda met Napoles in a cemetery and PNoy had to go to Crame | ABS-CBN News.