The magnitude 8.9 earthquake that had hit Japan on Friday last week sent fears down our spine as the extent of devastation is beyond anyone’s imagination.

Houses were torn into many pieces, cars ended up parked on rooftops, boats and ships tossed into land, toilet bowls hanging on electrical cables and the population of a town went missing. [Read more →]

He is known to be a business genius enjoying the admiration from the sector he has dominated for years.  But San Miguel Corporation president Ramon Ang is now proving himself as a sage too.

Ang shared during an interview with Inquirer last week that the Philippines is set to experience a power and water shortage by the summer of 2011 – that is already next year folks; only months from now.

“A power crisis is coming…We have to start preparing for it now if we are to avert it.  And in Luzon, our buffer is very think, if one plant goes offline in Luzon, there’s not enough spare capacity to take its place.”

And regarding the water shortage he is seeing some gloomy scenario on his crystal ball too,

“We may run out of water in the near future.  All it takes is for one earthquake to damage Angat Dam.”

This gloomy scenario has already been actually foreseen by many experts and all it takes indeed, as what Ang has also said is to prepare the nation and the people – first to make all necessary actions in order not to let this nation suffer from water and power shortage and second, if it could not be averted anymore, prepare the nation and the people on how to adopt to such a difficult condition.

Of course, all these fearless predictions of the king pin are not without any business interests.  For one, San Miguel Corporation has been shifting its business machinery for the past years from food and beverage to more lucrative business sectors like utilities, power and energy.  Second, the company is most recently been entangled to a business issue of operating the Laiban Dam to supply water to Metro Manila, but was scrapped due to criticisms from the public.  Presently, Angat Dam is the sole water provider for the whole of Metro Manila and has proven to be insufficient in capacity to be water source of all the millions of thirsty souls down the urban jungle.

Minus all the business interest Ramon Ang has to all these things he is sharing, getting ready and preparing for a crisis is an imperative for the government.

During the time of the highly-criticized and ridiculed Angelo Reyes, power shortage has already been predicted….wait, even way back during the time of Fidel Ramos.

I hope that this time around, this very serious issue should already be addressed head on and without any sugar coating.

Image from Castle Maine Independent.org

Rep. Manny Pacquiao of Saranggani is really the most popular lawmaker in the present 15^th Congress of Philippines.  After receiving applause for asking his bickering colleagues to move on (well, I am not pretty sure if he was applauded for what he said or simply because he is popular), the boxing champ is in a middle of a hullabaloo for being married to another woman.

The website of the House of Representatives shows that Rep. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao is married to a certain Elizabeth B. Salvacion instead of Jinky Pacquiao.  It also erroneously listed the boxing champ’s birth date as May 28, 1942 making the most senior lawmaker and the only senior citizen in the Lower Congress.  But of course, no one can still ever beat Sen. Juan Ponce “Immortal” Enrile.  LOL!

After the media discovered the erroneous entries, the Secretary General of the House Marilyn Yap said,

“The secretary general’s office has not released any data on the personal information submitted by members of the House of Representatives for website posting.  We are looking into the matter…We always double check our data…because it is unfair to Rep. Pacquiao and his family and the people of Saranggani.”

Manny Pacquiao shared his sentiment over the website glitch in a jest saying, “I am now 68?  I should be weak and feeble by now.”

I just hope that Manny will not receive a knock out punch out of the probing of Jinkee of who Elizabeth Salvacion really is…LOL!

And after knowing that Manny is already 68 years old, Floyd Chicken Mayweather will surely at last say yes to fight the pound-for-pound king.

What is the toughest job that you could imagine?  A blogger?  A construction worker?  Or being a jobless citizen?

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) together with its partner United Laboratories Inc. (Unilab) launched a contest to find out what is the toughest job in Philippine soil.  There is certainly much debate about what makes a job especially ‘tough’. A professional poker player at poker.dk would certainly have a tense workday, but perhaps one that is also quite enjoyable? On the other hand, maybe a surgeon who has someone’s life in their hands could be said to have the ‘toughest’ job, despite the fact that they usually receive a relatively high income.

It has also launched a website @touchjobsphilippines.com to give information to people who wants to join in the contest and those who will be forwarding their nominations.

The criteria and all other important details will soon be posted on the site.

Nominations are welcome until the 21^st of August.

“The search for the toughest job is the Philippines seeks to honor Filipino men and women who face the challenges of their day-to-day jobs with pride, resiliency and most of all, toughness.”

For me there are three toughest jobs out there:  being a public school teacher who has to reckon a classroom filled with 80 or so students but have to receive her salary six months after; being the spokesperson of President Arroyo as you need to constantly lie for her and reckon with the fact that sooner or later you will die unhappy, unloved by the public and schizophrenic; and being a son-in-law.  (Fish paste!  They say the last one is not a job; I could have easily won this contest.)

The winner?  Being a the spokesperson of President Arroyo.

How about you?  What is the toughest job for you?

Image from Everything Else

Angelo Reyes is really showing what he is made of:  an incompetent and arrogant public official who thinks that he is the indestructible Reyes just because he betrayed his former boss and installed the “cutest” president this country ever had.  Not the cutest part of Philippine history at all.

Today, power shortages and crisis in the Philippines do not only drive us nuts but also make us all fear the worst when Philippine Election Day comes; when some parts of Mindanao may easily become the lair of witches and magicians during the canvassing of votes.

Feeling the heat?  Pissed off with the sudden power cut off while you are doing a very important matter in front of your computer?  Or watching the climax of a movie scene then all of a sudden the screen left you with a blank stare?  Or printing a very important document and all of a sudden the machine came to halt?  Or how about withdrawing money from an ATM and the machine suddenly stops while trying to push out the money?

Who is to blame?

Well, for the arrogant Angie Reyes, there is no one but to blame but God. Huwaaat?!  Yes, you heard it right.

“You want to blame somebody, blame God.”

You heard i.?  That is one of the scapegoats of some capitalists who want to run from their responsibilities and obligations to their customers:  Acts of God.  WTF?!

Now I remember the devil that tempted Job who always tells him to blame God for all his miseries.

While he was there all these years as the top energy honcho, he did nothing but lobby for giant energy and some petroleum companies and follow the character of her boss, “pa-cute”.

He had made a forecast about this energy crisis already years back ala-Madam Auring, but has he done anything?  We all know the obvious the answer to this, the brownouts can speak for themselves.

Trying to take back his statement on blaming God for this power crisis, he said:

“If you’re looking for somebody to blame then you can blame me. No problem. I can take it. As a matter of fact I might even enjoy it.  Bring it on. Make my day.”

At least he still has that little impulse of sensitivity?

Hey, Angie, God has heard you already blaming him, and He is surely is pissed off for being blamed for all your incompetence and hard-headedness.

What do you think of Sec. Reyes of the Department of Energy saying we should blame God for this energy crisis we are all experiencing?  Share your comments, God is listening.

Image from