A few months back we complained to the Philippine Long Distance Co. (PLDT) through the prescribed normal process, about our landline that only gives us a hissing sound instead of the usual dial tone. Worse is that we cannot be called and we cannot also call through our landline.
We were not the only ones who reached out to the telephone company to complain, our daughter also made several calls as well. But when our complaint remained unacted for almost a month since we first reported the problem, we decided to write about it in our column. After the item came out, it took only two days for the PLDT technician to come to our house in a barangay in Tugbok district. He did the repair in so short a time.
And all the while we suspected that the defect was in the receiver, the technician later found out that what was defective was the modem. Mind you that our PLDT plan at the time we applied for a connection was to have a 25 megabytes per second internet speed. And we have it. With that MBPS the entire 1000-square meter compound that our house is located in, the net was available all over.
We were enjoying this PLDT amenity until our modem was replaced as a consequence of our complaint. We do not know exactly what happened, but with the new modem, the net can hardly reach the part of our house compound with a distance of less than 300 meters from where the modem is installed.
In fact, the internet signal is even erratic in our computer room right inside the house. Clearly, there is some diminution in the internet speed. Unfortunately, PLDT still bills us the same amount as agreed in our contract with the telecommunications company.
We are not demanding that this problem be addressed immediately as we know we are not the only customer of this giant corporation.
But we hope that PLDT people will find time to look into our complaint and where it is convenient for their technical guys to respond to a request for assistance, please do it where it is convenient. We do not wish to be like our siblings in Cebu where all of them transferred subscription to another Telco when PLDT failed to reconnect their lines after these were cut by the wind brought by the deadly typhoon Odette more than a year back.
We are a loyal customer and we expect that our continued patronage of PLDT for the last many years will be reciprocated accordingly.
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We are not ready to believe this claim but as a matter of courtesy for some relatives of patients who went all the way to our residence in a remote barangay in the third district just to air their protestations, we have to take this up in this column hoping that this would help stop an illegal policy by a second level hospital somewhere northwest of Davao City.
The patient’s relatives who came to us did not complain of the strictness of the hospital concerned in demanding the compliance of health protocols that are still in effect inside hospital buildings. They told us that it is okay with them if the one watching the patient cannot be replaced by any other unless that “other” can present the requirements like QR code, full vaccination certificate, wearing of face mask, and others.
What they were protesting was the alleged asking by the gate/hospital entrance personnel of a certain amount from the visiting relatives or friends of the patient supposedly to give them the opportunity to see their patient.
Since the patient’s relatives, including the wife, were not aware of such a policy, they told us that they told the hospital entrance personnel that they did not have enough money and were ready to leave. However, the patient and his daughter watcher, upon learning that her mother was at the entrance, asked the nurse in charge if she and her father could be the ones to get out instead. The request was granted.
Whether this claim is true or not, we have to be honest that we have not validated it yet. However, we have no reason to believe that the story was “made up” by the complaining patient’s relatives. After all, we cannot find even an iota of motive that the patient’s relatives have to complain against anyone in the hospital, much more its policies if there is no such weird scheme that is clearly detrimental to the hospital and its management system.
We can only hope that the complained issue can be immediately clarified or explained and that the hospital management has nothing to do with this apparent money-making venture.
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This is one twist in the investigation of the Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and eight others’ killings inside the compound of governor’s residence.
In an interview of former Davao de Oro governor Arturo Uy that was posted on Facebook that we saw yesterday, he told his interviewers that he was informed by highly reliable sources that a day after the Degamo massacre, a helicopter bearing the inscription Teves Cares, landed in a school ground in Mawab, Davao de Oro.
Being aware of what happened the day before, former Governor Uy openly admitted the Teves-owned helicopter landing in Mawab led him to engage in a lot of speculation. He said that he called the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines or CAAP in Davao City to check if there was any helicopter seeking permission to land in a Mawab site. The former provincial executive said the CAAP response was negative. So the former governor further narrated his speculation that the chopper could have transported the suspects in Mawab as most, if not all of them were reportedly from Mindanao. Or the helicopter could have brought the firearms used in the Degamo attack to Mawab town to have the same beyond the reach of investigators.
Former governor Uy concluded that the Negros Oriental congressman’s succeeding pronouncements, somehow gave credence to most, if not all, of his speculations.
Now the Uy disclosure will surely create a new avenue for a shift in the investigation, which could either derail the probe or result in a delay in time.
Somehow, this Degamo slay case is one that could be the epitome of a well-planned and executed crime in the annals of police sleuthing in the Philippines.
